The Aging Traveler

Written for the Airline Passenger Experience Association
APEX Experience Magazine – Issue 6.2 – March/April 2016

The clock keeps ticking. It really doesn’t matter what we try to do. Lotions and potions, exercise and nutrition, and even surgery won’t stop the calendar pages from flipping. Every day, we’re getting older, but that’s not stopping us – we’re traveling more than ever. We’re joined on our flights by millions and millions of other older travelers. Some are physically and mentally able to handle the stresses of modern travel, while others have challenges, as will airlines and airports in serving this burgeoning demographic.

The numbers are daunting – in the United States alone, the number of persons over 65 is projected to increase from 40 million in 2010 to 70 million in 2030, according to a 2014 report from the Airport Cooperative Research Program. The challenges facing the aging traveler are many, but the most prevalent issues are wayfinding; fatigue; figuring out technology and equipment, like self-service kiosks; and using amenities, such as toilet facilities.

EMPATHY IS THE NEW HOSPITALITY

“The cultural changes required to support older flyers – patience, empathy, care and, dare I say, love – will need to be top of the agenda when it comes to serving our silver travelers, and will push many airlines to the limit,” says Paul Wylde, CEO and creative director of his eponymous brand, design and innovation West Coast boutique. Among other projects, Wylde’s company created Hawaiian Airlines’ new first-class seat and cabin interior, Air Canada rouge’s brand and JetBlue’s Mint class. “The biggest challenge for all customer service-led industries is that they have never had to serve such a high number of older consumers and for extended periods of time,” adds Wylde.

Airlines have long-standing procedures for catering to older customers. Reservation support through teletypwriter phones or video relay services, and terminal and pre-board mobility assistance are commonplace. Airline websites provide online tips for aging passengers, and seniors may even find discounted fares with carriers such as United and Southwest. Japan Airlines recently created training sessions designed to aid staff in dealing with the physical limitations facing an aging traveler. In the training sessions, its flight attendants were asked to wear vision-limiting goggles, gloves to reduce tactile sensation and earplugs to deaden sound, all to mimic reduced sensory abilities.

For those travelers wanting a high level of personalized travel assistance, end-to-end services are offered by companies such as Atlanta-based Flying Companions. From simply making travel arrangements through to assisting with all aspects of a trip, including accompanying passengers on a flight, this may very well become a growth sector in the travel and service industry. And it may help airlines deal with the onslaught.

NEW DESIGN FOR OLD

“The two main future challenges for airlines will be operating with the sheer numbers of older flyers and retrofitting meaningful products and services that will cater to the specific needs of an older customer without overtly positioning these innovations as age-centric. We call this challenge ‘new design for old,’” says Wylde. “Good design is now part of the industry vernacular, and transcends age, sex and culture. New design for old is simply good design for all.”

Bombardier took this approach in developing the interior of its new C Series. The now certified CS100 is the first clean-sheet single-aisle aircraft design in decades, and will enter service this year. The larger CS300 will follow soon after. Antonio Ficca, manager, product marketing, Bombardier Commercial Aircraft, says, “We positioned the passengers at the center of our design process, and built an aircraft around them. So when you think of it in the context of older travelers, having an aircraft that gives you the widest seats, the largest bins, the largest space altogether in the cabin offers a level of experience that is unparalleled, certainly in the single-aisle market.”

The C Series’ cabin is optimized for its airline mission with five-across seating, including an aisle wide enough for passengers to get past a galley cart. It has enough bin space for every passenger to store a standard carry-on, “But one important feature is also the height of the bin,” says Ficca. “When the bins open, they are pivoting bins, so they open up and rotate, and when doing that, they actually open to a position that’s much lower than on other aircraft. So for an older traveler, the difference is very significant, the access to the bins, and the possibility to position your bags with very little effort, makes your life easier.”

Bombardier worked with interior supplier Zodiac Aerospace in developing the C Series’ integrated design. Even something design for an accessible lavatory was put under the microscope. “We conducted surveys with people with reduced mobility and gathered their feedback,” says Ficca. “We made sure that the positioning of each element of the lavatory was such that it would make it extremely easy for people with reduced mobility to use, to overcome the challenges that sometimes they face on other aircraft available in the market today.”

Looking elsewhere around a cabin, SII Deutschland has focused on meeting the ergonomic requirements of an older passenger, with its design for an accessible seating area. Foldable seat bottoms, like those in a movie theater, “facilitate safe ingress and egress,” says the company. SII seems to be on a path to address the design component of serving older travelers.

But Paul Wylde recognizes that’s only one part of the equation. “Some of the easiest challenges to solve with new design for old will actually be the harder innovations – thoughtful products, simple design, user-friendly interfaces, clear features, easy-to-handle controls,” he explains. “The more difficult challenges will be the softer ‘cultural’ changes – instilling the empathy and patience to handle vast numbers of people who will be slower, who will need more time, will need more support, may have difficulty hearing and grasping instructions so quickly, who need to use restroom facilities.”

Wylde distills it down to a focused observation. “As [an airline] prepares for an aging population, the most important product that [it] can develop is the art of patience. Patience will be the product.”

Read the original story in APEX Experience Magazine – Issue 6.2