Collinson Sets New Airport Lounge Standards for Contactless Journeys

While airlines shake off the dust and get flying again, however slowly and long that takes, passengers will want to return to their perks and comforts and feel assured they are entering safe spaces.

To that end, Collinson, a leader in travel experience and loyalty models and owner and operator of Priority Pass, is launching a trio of initiatives to boost health and safety for airport lounge staff and guests. The like to view it as  pioneering the new era of the contactless journey for the airport.

The initiatives include a new set of global health and safety standards for airport lounges within the Priority Pass network, a new digital solution to enable more socially-distant and touch-free food and beverage ordering in the lounge, and a further digital enhancement to enable a more contact-free entrance.

Collinson’s global airport lounge standards

Collinson’s set of global health and safety standards for airport lounges comprise a number of recommended steps, including:

• Provision of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and increased health and safety training for staff

• Floor markers for social distancing in queues or other areas where people congregate

• New evaluation of furniture layout to adhere to social distancing guidelines while maximizing space and allowing traveler groups to sit together

• Increased cleaning and disinfection using health authority-recommended products

• Switching air filtration systems to 100 percent outside air where possible

• Contact-free solutions where possible, including collection point options for F&B

• Removing print media and replacing with digital where possible

Collinson’s airport lounge standards were developed with input from the company’s in-house Global Medical Director who is a specialist expert in virus management, immunology and communicable diseases. The standards will be implemented in all Collinson-owned lounges and recommended for use in all partner lounges across the Collinson airport lounge network of more than 1,200 airport lounges, including Priority Pass, LoungeKey and Lounge Pass programs.

Contactless Journeys

Collinson is spearheading the contactless airport journey via digital innovation to introduce safer, touch-free experiences into the airport lounge.

Collinson is partnering with Grab, an airport e-commerce platform and marketplace for contactless orders and payment solutions at airport restaurants, to launch a new pilot concept that will enable airport lounges to introduce a digital food and beverage (F&B) ordering service. The system enables travelers to use their own smartphone or tablet to place their order for F&B available within the lounge and receive it via safe table delivery by a staff member or collect it from a dedicated collection point. This will help airport lounges to continue offering a range of  options to travelers in a more convenient and controlled manner.  

Further evolving the contactless airport experience, contact-free entry is now possible at Collinson lounges, removing the need for members to touch the device to process their transaction. Those using a digital membership card in the Priority Pass, LoungeKey or Mastercard Airport Experiences apps will have an entirely contact-free experience, while those using a physical Priority Pass or payment card will need to insert it into the device, but not touch the device in any other way.

“COVID-19 has radically altered what travelers need and expect from the airport journey. We are now putting our experience in travel towards developing robust solutions for airport wellbeing, to help drive a safe and effective recovery for the travel sector,” said Andy Besant, Director of Travel Experiences at Collinson. “There’s no denying that the coronavirus pandemic has changed how we think about health and safety at the airport. We look forward to championing the travel recovery while making health and wellbeing a priority.”