Aberdeen International Airport
Challenge
Aberdeen International Airport (AIA) is best known for being the gateway to Europe’s energy capital, serving more than three million travelers a year. It serves a wide range of international and national destinations to its passengers via chartered and scheduled flights. Having split from Heathrow Airport Holdings, AIA has a fresh outlook and is going from strength to strength with increasing passenger numbers year on year. KMP were engaged to deliver a 3 phase project for Aberdeen. Our mission was to create a new site which is professional, clear, and informative with a view to increasing site conversion for the airport. Our primary objectives were to increase non-aeronautical revenue improve the digital user journey increase the number of inbound and outbound passengers clearly communicate the range of destinations on offer from the airport
Solution
PHASE 1 – PORT SITE ONTO NEW WEB PLATFORM For the first phase we helped Aberdeen International Airport transition away from the Heathrow Airport (BAA) CMS platform and move their website onto a new content management system. This was time sensitive so we pulled out all the stops and managed to rebuild the site and deploy it onto the very capable Umbraco CMS platform in record time. PHASE 2 – NEW FUNCTIONALITY For the second phase we added some new high priority functionality. Aberdeen were keen to ensure users had all of the information they needed at their fingertips so we introduced live flight updates by twitter. To achieve this we constructed a tweeting departure board for the airport, allowing users to be kept up to date with the status of their flight by DMing their flight number and receiving regular messages back. We also gave users the option to receive email updates on their flight status which incorporated an option for those customers signing up to opt-in to future marketing emails from the airport. Aberdeen were also in need of a new ad platform for their site so KMP deployed functionality within the CMS to allow the airport’s marketing department to have total control over ad management across the site. Previously this had been managed by a third party so this both reduced running costs and provided Aberdeen Airport with the facility to ensure this key revenue stream continues to be relevant and profitable. PHASE 3 – REDESIGN The third phase was completed in early 2015 and in this phase we completely redesigned the look and feel of the website, introducing an enhanced color scheme and a new layout which focuses on the airport’s red routes. While maintaining all of the sites existing functionality we have also introduced a number of new features: Using advanced geo-location technology, the website is designed to provide a personalized service, offering information dependent on users’ destination selections and geographical location. The site presents a more engaging user experience with superior and mobile-optimized search and navigation, and the capability of providing tailored information to each and every visitor. New mega menu style navigation offers users a cleaner, less cluttered and easier to navigate experience; and allows Aberdeen Airport to bring their most important content to the forefront, guiding users to key touch points. Improved destination map based on Google Maps along with a range of expert destination guides covering all routes the airport serves. These guides allow AIA to communicate effectively with their passengers while also promoting their destination offering. Users now have access to everything from travel tips to the local weather in that country or city, allowing them to make a more informed choice on their holiday destination. We’ve completely redesigned the way the live flight information is displayed on the site. An innovative new pinning option allows users to “pin” one or more live flights to their browser, providing up to the minute status updates. Because the new site is fully responsive, those users accessing the site via their smartphone can enjoy a streamlined, easy-to-use experience optimised for their device that allows users to keep up to date with their flight information on the move. The new site builds on the improvements made in 2014 which are already enjoyed by over 100,000 visitors each month, with over 1.2million people visiting the site in 2014 alone. OUR THOUGHTS Our solution is an eye-catching, fully responsive website that ensured functionality was persisted across mobile, tablet and desktop platforms. The site is built with HTML5 and on an open source CMS -Umbraco version 6, the popular .NET CMS which combines a fully-featured solution with a large amount of flexibility. The modular, component based design allows content editors at Aberdeen Airport to easily create varying templates based on underlying content modules. We are incredibly excited about delivering Aberdeen Airport’s website, we’ve worked really closely with the airport to ensure that we’ve used insight and innovation to really push the boundaries of what the site can do in a way that will be truly effective. We set out to deliver a delightful user experience for Aberdeen Airport’s passengers providing useful and innovative functionality to enhance the overall airport experience.
Results
The new Aberdeen International Airport website offers a bold fresh look and an enhanced digital experience for its visitors. Although the new site has only been live for a short time, we are already seeing improvements in engagement. When compared to the same week last year: Page views are up by 11% Time spent on the website increased by 56% Bounce rate has decreased by 26%
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