Went through the new Terminal 2 today, on its first peak morning since opening. A bit chaotic as you'd expect, but nothing that can't be fixed. A few things I noticed or conveyed to me by colleagues:
Check In: While I had carry on only, I'm told that Check In was a bit of a nightmare. Long queues, but well controlled with barriers etc. Unsure whether new systems or procedures were being used, though I'd expect Check In to eventually improve once everyone (staff and pax) are familiar with the new Terminal)
Security: I breezed through with no queue only a few pax ahead of me at each station. At least one of the stations was closed, not a big issue at the fairly early time I went through (about 5:40am), but would be good get them all open about 6am for the busiest time of the morning. Looks like there's room for at least another 2-4 stations with some minor reconfiguration should it be required in the future.
Seating: Not enough seating! A few spare seats scattered around, with a significant amount of pax standing. Seat availability improved for a few seconds with each flight called, but was quickly taken by a constant stream of new pax coming through from security. The issue was most likely compounded by the fact that many pax would have arrived early today in anticipation of delays or to check out the new building. Overheard a Duty Manager mention that in the future some pax would be accommodated in a lounge, so this could be a clue as to how they plan to tackle the issue (if you could call that a plan). I would suggest they purchase some new seating and find somewhere to put it. Even temporarily, another row or two could be added easily.
Lounge: While on the subject of lounges, I'm sure the VA lounge staff at T3 got a well deserved break today. With no Skywest flights from T3 anymore, the food bill will be down significantly! The T4 plans show a large amount of floorspace reserved for a lounge (or two), though it's well hidden behind the Relay store. there is talk of a Skywest lounge, though I'm unsure of who would have access. With no premium passengers, and no loyalty program of their own, I can only imagine they'll have to use VA status as the entry requirement, as per the VA lounge. Maybe some other members have more information than I? And timelines...
Retail: Walked right past any retail landside, so can't comment there. Airside outlets were packed, withe the pub open for coffees I believe, Coffee Club doing a roaring trade, and Subway rounding out the food offering. A few people in the Relay store... maybe waiting for a seat?
Boarding: With most flights boarding 80-100 pax, the queue for each flight snaked back through the first set of seating. So there's a tip - sit at least one set of seats back from the boarding gate side, unless you like being trampled every 10 minutes. The counter naming system is a little confusing - A to H. Staff had trouble giving them standard name. I heard "Counter A" "Counter Letter A" "Counter Number A" "Gate A" etc. With most pax being more familiar with numbers, I'm not sure how this might be resolved, short of just letting people get used to it. Each Counter has only one computer so it's a tedious process - a reconfiguration would allow for two staff members to check BPs. Once you give the staff member at the Counter your BP, it gets handed back to you intact (rather than the stub being taken) and you are told a Gate number. So forget the Counter you just arrived at, now you have to remember a Gate number which wasn't on the screens, and isn't on your BP (at least not on mine). I wasn't really listening out for a Gate number, so luckily for me, I just followed the people in front. Arriving at the Gate after a bit of a walk - we were at gate 1, the stub is taken and the plane is right there to board.
As an aside, does anyone know why Skywest print a 2D barcode on the web check in BP, but don't scan it like they scan standard BPs? It takes an extra 8-10 seconds per pax to board manually, so a fix here would go some way to alleviating queues.
Interestingly, I can't see a separation for arriving passengers from those departing. With many passengers arriving from unscreened airports, would this not be a security issue? Unscreened pax are separated at T3, exiting directly landside, so I'm unsure what makes T4 different.
All in all, a good first peak morning from my point of view. Certainly some things to improve on, but for what is essentially a big shed, it does what it says on the box.
Would be interested to hear of other's experiences over the coming weeks.
Check In: While I had carry on only, I'm told that Check In was a bit of a nightmare. Long queues, but well controlled with barriers etc. Unsure whether new systems or procedures were being used, though I'd expect Check In to eventually improve once everyone (staff and pax) are familiar with the new Terminal)
Security: I breezed through with no queue only a few pax ahead of me at each station. At least one of the stations was closed, not a big issue at the fairly early time I went through (about 5:40am), but would be good get them all open about 6am for the busiest time of the morning. Looks like there's room for at least another 2-4 stations with some minor reconfiguration should it be required in the future.
Seating: Not enough seating! A few spare seats scattered around, with a significant amount of pax standing. Seat availability improved for a few seconds with each flight called, but was quickly taken by a constant stream of new pax coming through from security. The issue was most likely compounded by the fact that many pax would have arrived early today in anticipation of delays or to check out the new building. Overheard a Duty Manager mention that in the future some pax would be accommodated in a lounge, so this could be a clue as to how they plan to tackle the issue (if you could call that a plan). I would suggest they purchase some new seating and find somewhere to put it. Even temporarily, another row or two could be added easily.
Lounge: While on the subject of lounges, I'm sure the VA lounge staff at T3 got a well deserved break today. With no Skywest flights from T3 anymore, the food bill will be down significantly! The T4 plans show a large amount of floorspace reserved for a lounge (or two), though it's well hidden behind the Relay store. there is talk of a Skywest lounge, though I'm unsure of who would have access. With no premium passengers, and no loyalty program of their own, I can only imagine they'll have to use VA status as the entry requirement, as per the VA lounge. Maybe some other members have more information than I? And timelines...
Retail: Walked right past any retail landside, so can't comment there. Airside outlets were packed, withe the pub open for coffees I believe, Coffee Club doing a roaring trade, and Subway rounding out the food offering. A few people in the Relay store... maybe waiting for a seat?
Boarding: With most flights boarding 80-100 pax, the queue for each flight snaked back through the first set of seating. So there's a tip - sit at least one set of seats back from the boarding gate side, unless you like being trampled every 10 minutes. The counter naming system is a little confusing - A to H. Staff had trouble giving them standard name. I heard "Counter A" "Counter Letter A" "Counter Number A" "Gate A" etc. With most pax being more familiar with numbers, I'm not sure how this might be resolved, short of just letting people get used to it. Each Counter has only one computer so it's a tedious process - a reconfiguration would allow for two staff members to check BPs. Once you give the staff member at the Counter your BP, it gets handed back to you intact (rather than the stub being taken) and you are told a Gate number. So forget the Counter you just arrived at, now you have to remember a Gate number which wasn't on the screens, and isn't on your BP (at least not on mine). I wasn't really listening out for a Gate number, so luckily for me, I just followed the people in front. Arriving at the Gate after a bit of a walk - we were at gate 1, the stub is taken and the plane is right there to board.
As an aside, does anyone know why Skywest print a 2D barcode on the web check in BP, but don't scan it like they scan standard BPs? It takes an extra 8-10 seconds per pax to board manually, so a fix here would go some way to alleviating queues.
Interestingly, I can't see a separation for arriving passengers from those departing. With many passengers arriving from unscreened airports, would this not be a security issue? Unscreened pax are separated at T3, exiting directly landside, so I'm unsure what makes T4 different.
All in all, a good first peak morning from my point of view. Certainly some things to improve on, but for what is essentially a big shed, it does what it says on the box.
Would be interested to hear of other's experiences over the coming weeks.
