Finavia: Designing a digital airport for smoother travel experiences
We help Finavia support their customers' journeys through all their world-class digital touchpoints - from the Helsinki Airport app and online parking reservations to information screens and the company's website.
Technologies used
- C#
- .NET Core
- React
- TypeScript
- Unity
- Mapbox GL JS
- Microsoft Azure
The challenge
The International Air Travel Association projects that passenger demand will double over the next 20 years. This represents a huge potential for growth for airport operators, but it also places extraordinary demands on the infrastructure and services at airports. The network of regional airports run by Finavia is no exception and the challenges will be particularly pronounced at Helsinki International Airport, which is an important European hub for air travel.
Being able to provide passengers with the smoothest possible travel experience despite the volume growth is essential for maintaining Helsinki’s position as a leading gateway between East & West, as well as maintaining Finavia’s reputation as one of the most innovative and customer-centered airport operators in the world.
To provide a world-class travel experience at all its airports, Finavia wanted to take full advantage of all key digital touchpoints to offer passengers all the information and services they need to make their experience as pleasant and stress-free as possible.
A smooth traveling experience combined with relevant service information also generates sales growth for commercial partners operating at Finavia’s airports.
Outcomes and impact
Since the relaunch on 30th of November 2017. In comparison to the previous year
+125%Revenue
138%E-commerce sales
+400%New registered users
+50%Page views
2,436,476Users served
What we did
Finavia and Futurice work to provide all users support along their customer journey through Finavia’s digital touchpoints - the Helsinki Airport app, online parking reservations, information screens, and Finavia's website.
For passengers, Finavia strives to provide increased end-to-end control over their own journey, from reserving a parking space in advance to providing up-to-date information about waiting time at the security check and push notifications about the situation at the boarding gate using real-time data.
The scope and complexity that comes with designing a website that serves the needs of 21 airports, like finavia.fi, emphasized the need for fast iterative cycles. The process employed user research, user journey mapping and ideation workshops with both users and key stakeholders, including passengers, airlines, authorities, the media, and a wealth of organizations active at airports. Since launch, the website has won multiple awards including Webby, Lovie, and an IxDA for its user experience.
We delivered a highly scalable and robust microservice system, using the latest technologies and methods. This enables accelerated time to market of any service or feature via Finavia’s digital channels. This microservice system supports all digital channels, including mobile applications, websites, wifi landing pages, maps, and service information screens, and provides customers with a seamless experience throughout their time at the airport.
Why it matters
As the capital city of Finland, Helsinki competes for everything from tourists to corporate headquarters with other cities in the region, like Stockholm, Copenhagen, Oslo, Tallinn and many others. A world-class airport gives a country an important competitive edge. Digital services and a seamless omnichannel customer journey incorporating both online and offline elements with faultless transitions play a vital role in fulfilling Finavia’s customer promise of smooth traveling that starts as soon as you book your flight.
Finavia and Futurice work to constantly improve all aspects of the airport experience for all stakeholders. For example, since the launch of the new finavia.fi, digital revenue has increased 125%, e-commerce 138%, and user registration 400%. This is the latest chapter in Finavia’s and Futurice’s co-creation of the future airport.
Working with people from Futurice is inspiring and rewarding. They are not afraid to challenge the client if it’s deemed necessary for producing the best possible results. I especially appreciate their willingness to look for and present different solution options that often take in all perspectives into the question. When we create new services for our customers, the processes are visualized in a way that makes them understandable and clear to all stakeholders. I have great respect for the proactive and solution-centered attitude of the Futuriceans we work with. To me, it doesn’t even feel like a client-vendor relationship, but more like a real team. Working together is fun, informal, relaxed, and flexible. Awesome people and real pros!
Finnish airport operator Finavia enables smooth international flight connections through its national airport network. The biggest, Helsinki International Airport, served a total on 18.9 million passengers in 2017. Finavia offers world-class services to passengers, air traffic operators and commercial partners.
Want to know more about this?
Get in touch
Looking for help with an idea, brand new brief or in-flight project? Drop us a line for a straightforward conversation.