Airports and Branding - Are We Falling off the Radar?

Is Our Industry Falling Through the Cracks with Airport Branding?

FlyLAX.com has a beautiful website. There’s a nice tab called GROUND TRANSPORTATION INFORMATION. I clicked on it and here is what travelers see:

“There are several modes of ground transportation that operate at LAX to facilitate the movement of passengers and visitors to and from the airport.”

• LAX Shuttle & Airline Connection

• LAX-it & Shuttle

• LAX FlyAway® Buses

• Hotel & Parking Lot Shuttles

• Public Transportation (public buses and light rail)

• Rental Cars

• Scheduled Buses

• Taxis

• Ride App/Transportation Network Companies (e.g. Lyft, Uber)

FlySFO.com is better. At least they actually include our niche on their site. Limos, alias chauffeured services, is bundled with taxi and ride-share under their GROUND TRANSPORTATION tab. However, there is only ONE “limo” company referred by SFO called or Sabet Transportation, better known as Teslaoncall.com. What’s that all about?

San.org, the international airport in San Diego forgot about us too but strangely, they didn’t leave out “walking or biking” under their TO and FROM options tab. Boo!

Making sure that this isn’t just a California thing, I checked out the busiest airport in the country – Atlanta. Much better. They do have a “limousine” exclusive tab. They do have a directory of services. However, the entire block of information is three sentences. I wish I could say the same for LaGuardia. If I had 3.50 reading glasses, I might be able to find a slight mention of chauffeured service, but since I don’t own a set of cheaters that powerful, I have to give New York’s main airport a fail on the industry’s exposure front.

This is an opportunity for our industry – especially now – to work closer with our airports. Help them recognize that our industry carries their First-Class passengers and that those people are major airline users and influencers. By leaving us out of their branding, they are shortchanging their client relationships with their top-tier travelers. At all touch points, our clients should be able to find us on signage, on apps, on websites. This is important. The squeaky wheel gets greased. Let’s take this slow period to do more marketing work with our airports. They need our services for their well-heeled travelers just as much as we need them.

Sara Eastwood-Richardson