PEOPLE matters

Moments of truth

Richard Plenty and Terri Morrissey reflect on how passenger perceptions of travel are shaped by their experiences in turbulent times.

How fast and how unexpectedly the world changes. We ran our ACI ‘High Performance Airport Leadership’ programme from February 16-20 and the message coming from our international participants was optimistic, with growth remaining the principal challenge.

We will be running a second course from March 23 -27. In the space of one month, war has broken out across the Middle East at a scale and intensity few had anticipated. The context has changed entirely. What will be the mood this time?

We live in turbulent times. For over 20 years, leadership commentators have been using the phrase ‘VUCA’ to describe a world which is ‘Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous’.

This remains a useful acronym, but the increasingly chaotic nature of change means it doesn’t adequately capture people’s perceptions and emotional responses to the way things are going.

The impact on people can be profound. Jamais Cascio, an American anthropologist and principal author of the recently published book Navigating the Age of Chaos (2025) has come up with the acronym: ‘BANI: Brittle, Anxious, Non-linear, Incomprehensible’ in an effort to capture how people perceive a world in which expected patterns fail, and where the illusions people have built up on how we can predict and control the future are called into question.

In this world there are no constants. What are the anchors that can steady the ship?

In chaotic times, we increasingly rely on the constancy and stability of human interactions and experience. These become critical beacons in an uncertain world. Supporting each other – our family, friends, colleagues and sometimes even strangers – becomes very important.

We remember the positive things that people do for us that make a difference in this unpredictable world. We yearn for communication that helps us understand what is happening.

This also holds true for the passenger experience. Reputations can be made and lost when times are challenging. This is when people’s impressions are most vivid – and these are reflected in the stories that are told for many years afterwards. Treat people well when times are tough and they will tell others about it. Treat them badly, and they do not forget.

As a passenger, there is nothing more unsettling during disruption than to be left without any information, human contact or sources of reliable messaging. We both have experiences that we have never forgotten. They include being stuck in Sydney Airport for hours on the runway with a young family during a strike over 30 years ago and not being given accurate information by the airline about the evolving situation.

Fortunately, there are signs that many airports are taking their responsibility for the passenger experience much more seriously than before.

In an interview on CNN, the CEO of Dubal Airports, Paul Griffiths, was asked how DXB was supporting passengers during the current crisis. He replied that it was ‘incredibly important to keep people informed’ and that the airport had also remained ‘calm and composed’. He also said that he thought the airport was doing ‘reasonably well’.

As testimony to this, members of one of the author’s family recently passed through Dubai Airport en route to Sydney Australia from London. Providing a quick test of these aspirations, their comments were that everything seemed completely normal and that DXB was busy but efficient.

Indeed, the most stressful part of their journey was the loss of our 6-year old’s cuddly toy ‘Hedgie’, left on the inbound flight.

‘Walking in the passenger’s shoes’ and making an anxiety provoking situation feel as safe and normal as possible is a good place to start when addressing the passenger experience in turbulent times. Finding and returning Hedgie would be the icing on the cake!