The issue at Houston Airport — Occupied time & design.
Some time ago, executives at a Houston airport faced a troubling customer-relations issue. Passengers were lodging an inordinate number of complaints about the long waits at baggage claim.
In response, the executives increased the number of baggage handlers working that shift. The plan worked: the average wait fell to eight minutes, well within industry benchmarks. But the complaints persisted.
Confused, the airport executives undertook a thorough on-site analysis of the journey from leaving the plane, to collecting baggage. They discovered that it took passengers only one minute to walk from their gate to baggage claim, but seven more to collect their bags. In other words, an overwhelming majority of their journey was spent simply standing and waiting.
After discovering this, they decided on a new approach. They moved the arrival gate further away from the main terminal, and then routed the bags to the outermost carousel. Passengers now spent a total of six minutes walking, and spent just two minutes waiting for their bags.
Complaints immediately dropped to zero.
