We’re hugely excited about an initiative that we’ve been part of at London Gatwick Airport.

As part of the £1 billion investment programme announced by the new owners, Gatwick has been looking to make the airport environment much more human and personal than you might otherwise expect from somewhere that sees 33 million passengers a year flying to 200+ destinations.

And that’s where social media comes in.

 

From this week in a move that we think is unique certainly among European airports,Gatwick has been inviting passengers to call them out on Twitter by posting actual physical prompts on the information screens at check-in – the ones that sit beside the departure and arrivals screens and also tell you what you can and can’t take through security.

At the moment the screens will run messages during working hours.   But this is currently only the start.

As an international airport, Gatwick does see a lot of flights leave at what the rest of us might consider unsociable hours.  The aim is to extend social media responses to these time periods so that Twitter becomes an instant feedback mechanism where problems, comments and concerns are dealt with in real time.

Twitter training is slowly being extended to operational and customer services staff to allow us to make that happen.  Which comes back to Gatwick being an organisation that is committed to using social media to make a difference.

Twitter and other online social tools will be used to take the temperature on the ground, and to help improve the passenger experience while people are actually passing through the airport’s two terminals.

See also press release up on the Gatwick website and The Next Web coverage