Case Studies

The challenge:

Brussels South Charleroi Airport offers access to more than 190 destinations in 53 countries to 8 million passengers every year and has recently opened the second terminal building. The airport has been rewarded on multiple occasions for its operational expertise,  punctuality, and the quality of the services it provides.

From passenger processing regulations, and sanitization within the airports, to the introduction of new biometric technology, the aviation industry has experienced numerous changes and has been subjected to a rapidly changing environment. Apart from irreversible hygiene and safety protocols, recent global events have also changed consumers’ expectations of the travel experience, and the aviation industry will have to continue to adapt to these shifts in order to meet customers’ needs.

However, the industry has clearly demonstrated its appetite for a rebound, and airports like Brussels South Charleroi Airport have been agile in adopting enhanced technology to deliver the best passenger experience, to ensure customer confidence and engagement remains unimpacted. However, with the aviation sector now fighting to recover from the damage of the pandemic, rapid digitalization has gained traction, and implementing solutions like Purple’s WiFi Analytics will improve competitiveness by providing valuable traveler insights to better equip them for the future.

Since Purple’s implementation, Brussels South Charleroi Airport has used the platform’s capabilities to reach untapped opportunities, offer travelers distinct options, and improve customer experience. The airport has been able to understand more clearly who its customers are, and therefore use this data to

• Understand key demographic information to build travelers’ profiles
• Grow and develop its current flight destination network
• Provide new business opportunities to airlines
• Engage with new airlines, building strong and informed relationships
• Improve marketing campaigns to increase conversions and drive revenue

Brussels South Charleroi Airport knows that part of keeping an outstanding performance begins with the customer, and Purple solutions have been critical to achieving the primary focus and have unlocked both short and long term commercial opportunities.

The solution:

 While improving the passenger experience with digital technology is paramount, disruptive technologies must also drive efficiency and earnings. Purple’s MicroSurvey functionality allows businesses like Charleroi Airport to create and customize surveys to get a complete understanding of the traveler’s sentiment and preferences. The airport utilized this tool to find out which destinations passengers would like to fly from Charleroi airport and responses were aggregated in real-time, providing reports within the platform with unique actionable insights such as:

• Identifying, in order of importance, each new destination they had as an option to open new routes
• Increasing the quality of the service by providing options that are aligned with travelers’ preferences
• Providing market insights to airline business partners aimed at strengthening commercial relationships and drive revenue for both parties
• Drive increased airport footfall by launching new destinations that will have an effect on new and returning visits

Additionally, the use of Purple’s LogicFlow tool enabled Charleroi Airport to seamlessly automate a variety of languages depending on the visitor preferences, including English, French or Dutch. This functionality has prevented any language gaps and limitations that ultimately affect the service and the passenger experience when in the airport.

Results:

It’s been 2 years since Purple and Brussels South Charleroi Airport became strategic partners and so far the airport has seen 689,615 unique users and a total of 1,235,051 WiFi logins.

The MicroSurvey functionality was activated at no extra cost and it has greatly influenced ROI performance as a result of providing customer data and insights to bring informed decisions to the table. 

With an open rate of 86%, the airport received 89,845 survey responses to analyze the top 5 destination options that passengers would like to fly from Charleroi Airport:

Destination 1 – 41.4% 

Destination 2 – 30.6%

Destination 3 – 13.8% 

Destination 4 – 10% 

Destination 5 – 4.3% 

By using the automated and real-time MicroSurveys tool, Brussels South Charleroi Airport was able to make savings of €2,695,350, instead of manually gathering feedback from travellers, resulting in an ROI of 10,630%.

The success of this project has impacted not only footfall and engagement indicators, but also provided endless opportunities for Brussels South Charleroi Airport to open commercial alliances and build long-lasting relationships.

Elise Eeklaer, Digital & Client Relationship Coordinator @ Brussels Charleroi Airport says:

“With the implementation of Purple’s tools, we are now able to offer a high quality service to our passengers while gathering insights that allow us to understand the needs and expectations of our different passenger profiles and thus be able to identify concrete actions to improve the customer experience.”