Johannes Bhanye, CASAS’ member, has published a chapter in the book Making Sense of Planning and Development for the Post-Pandemic Cities with his colleagues Mareli Hugo, Abraham Matamanda & Kgosi Mocwagae.
Abstract: As the aviation industry recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, the ability of African airports to adapt and innovate has become even more critical. This chapter presents the travellers’ airport experiences in the post-COVID-19 pandemic period. It also presents practical solutions to improve passengers’ airport experiences in the post-COVID-19 pandemic period. Data for the study was collected through desktop research and rapid airport ethnography by observing and interviewing travellers at Bram Fischer International Airport (South Africa), Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport (Zimbabwe), and Oliver Tambo International Airport (South Africa) from check-in, departure concourse, security checks and boarding. Our findings reveal that travellers’ airport experiences in the post-COVID-19 pandemic period were mixed but largely negative, with reports of high uncertainty among travellers, concerns about COVID-19 infections, flight delays and cancellations, stressful experiences, luggage loss, and bad treatment by airport personnel. We conclude that accelerated recovery of the air transport sector across the African continent is vital in the post-COVID-19 pandemic period. Although African airports have been striving for improved passenger volumes and expanding their capacities, the concept of analysing and improving passenger experience is yet to be widely improved among African airports. Given that the passenger is central to the success of any airport, enhancing passenger experience should be at the heart of airport improvement initiatives in Africa. Governments should step up efforts to provide financial and regulatory support for the industry. Airports should also strive to enable seamless travel experiences where digitalisation, sustainability, and newer technologies can help ease the passenger journey.
Read the full chapter here: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-97-5481-6_6
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CASAS
The Collective of Agrarian Scholar-Activists from the Global South (CASAS) is a community of Scholar-Activists working in critical agrarian studies.