10 Ways 3D Interactive Map Apps Will Transform the Airport Experience (Part 2)

Welcome back to the second half of our two-part article (see part one here!) on how to transform the airport experience using 3D interactive map apps. Accessible through a mobile app so that every passenger can find their way, last time we talked about driving directions, helping people get through check-in and security quickly, and creating a detailed map of the sky mall. But that was only the beginning. Let's pick up at the possibilities of a map that paths customers anywhere they want to go.

How 3D Interactive Map Apps Will Transform the Airport Experience - Continued!

6) Fastest Path to Destination from Current Location

Getting to explore the airport sky mall is by far one of the best things about flying. Children often see airports as a kind of theme park because of the enormous decorative hallways, brightly lit venues, and constant opportunities to buy candy. However, the danger that comes with enjoying browsing the sky mall or galavanting between attractions is the chance of missing your flight. Often, passengers who got swept up in enjoying the airport will find themselves on the wrong side from their terminal with their boarding time fast approaching.

By adding a 3D map to your airport app, you can build in scheduled alerts that help customers find the fastest path back to their terminals in time for boarding. This means fewer missed flights, fewer unhappy customers, and a lot more just-in-time recoveries. This feature can also be used to help people who have restaurant reservations in the airport or for those who wish to find a gift shop they really wanted to check out.

7) Guided Airport Experiences

Of course, for people who like to plan their vacation from the packing list to their touring schedule, being able to plan routes through the airport is a dream come true. Using 3D interactive map apps and a pathing system, you can allow your passengers, travel agents, and event planners to put together complete pathing routes that can guide a customer through an entire airport experience from beginning to end. Many people will jump on the chance for an app to guide them starting at where to park, how to check in, and which security line to take. If you add the ability to factor in well-timed dinner reservations and a clear route back to the terminal in time for boarding, you have just transformed the classic airport hassle into a leisurely tour!

A lot of kinds of travel involve extensive trip planning that would benefit from a map that helps you pre-plan the entire airport experience. Group trips, conventions, planned layover schedules, and customers that like to pre-plan everything all benefit from this feature. You can even use airport experience routing to handle unaccompanied minors and make sure they find the right places and wind up properly supervised and safely tracked.

8) Locating the Nearest Restroom

No matter where you are in the airport, from baggage checking to baggage claim, bathrooms are essential! Every working airport knows that for many passengers, the entire airport experience will revolve around having a clean, automated bathroom when they need one. While you do your best to put out big lighted signs, a 3D interactive map app gives you the opportunity to include a quick bathroom button that immediately routes passengers to the nearest available restroom area by the most direct path.

This might seem like a joke at first, but just wait and see - the positive reviews from grateful parents with small children, pregnant women, people feeling airsick, and people who drank a little too much on the plane who can quickly and easily find a place to freshen up and compose themselves will roll in. Air travel is stressful, and quick clean bathroom opportunities are absolutley necessary.

9) Highlighting Safe Areas to Read and Nap

Everyone knows that people sleep in airports. No matter how rigid the rows of chairs are and how brightly the place is lit, there are always jetlagged, exhausted, opportunistic passengers who find a way to catch a nap during their four hours of layover time between flights. Others may not go fully to sleep but instead settle in to do some work on their laptop or catch up on their reading. The one problem with all three of these decisions, inevitable as they might be in a business that involves hours of waiting on a regular basis, is that these people aren't monitoring their things as closely. Thefts are more likely to happen to people sleeping, reading, and working than people moving around or being vigilant.

Many of the more savvy airports have started to integrate safe monitored places to catch a nap in a secure and more dimly lit area along with the usual clubhouses for people to find a safe corner to plug in their laptops and order a light lunch. In fact, airports and airlines often have a variety of services that are underused simply because passengers don't know about them. By highlighting these opportunities or allowing customers to search for them in a 3D interactive map app, you can increase usage of these areas, increase sales, and give passengers a safer selection of environments to rest and wait in.

10) Watching Airplanes and Transportation Arrive and Depart

The final useful aspect of a live 3D map of your airport is the ability to show your customers exactly where their transportation is at the current moment. If they want to catch the airport shuttle out to a far terminal, you can show your shuttle's exact locations on the map, moving from stop to stop with the stops marked and color coded for clarity. If a plane is delayed due to weather or still being refueled on the tarmac, you can show it's location so customers stop asking the attendants at the terminal desk where the plane is.

In fact, you can track all sorts of things! Because an airport includes dozens of other services, you can offer live tracking for any service willing to get onboard. You can live-track food delivery in the airport, track the location of airport carts passing through, and track each rental car to show customers that their vehicle is being pulled around. You can even partner with a few local ridesharing and taxi services to help customers see where their hired rides are on the approach.

It's Clear - 3D Interactive Map Apps are the Future for Airports

Airports have always been on the leading edge of providing maps to customers. They have been passing out paper maps, posting enormous lit maps, and were some of the first to provide maps through mobile apps because getting around the airport is such an important part of the customer experience. 3D interactive map apps are now possible on a mobile interface, and airports have every reason to upgrade and once again transform the airport experience for the better!

Interested in learning more? Please reach out to concept3D - we'd love to let you know how our services can transform your business.