Surely everyone who uses airports knows this feeling of inner restlessness that sometimes arises when entering a terminal building - especially if it's unfamiliar yet. Where's my check-in counter? Will there be lines? Where's the security check and how long will it take to get through it? Will there be time left to head into the shops and have a coffee? Where's my gate and how long will it take for me to get there?

Sometimes this restlessness disappears quickly because it's easy to find one's way. But now and again our concerns turn out to be justified because the terminal turns out to be a true labyrinth.

Wayfinding is not only an essential aspect of the passenger experience in every terminal building, it is also an often underestimated factor when it comes to terminal efficiency and profitability.

A commercially successful terminal allows to process high passenger numbers in little time. The faster passengers get through a given amount of space the lower the costs per processed passenger will be. For a profitable non-aviation business it is crucial that the passenger spends as much time as possible in the central shopping area. But this will only happen if he is laid-back and doesn't have to worry about missing his flight because he can't find his gate or can't reach it in time.

So the easier a passenger finds his way through the terminal building the less time he will need to go through the different processing areas and the lower his stress level will be. The points at which he/she needs to decide where to go next must be kept at a minimum and it has to be immediately clear where the different options lead.

The ideal wayfinding-solution would be a "telling" terminal design and architecture that guide passengers intuitively and make signs redundant in the first place. Signage is very costly and needs to be adapted every time changes in terms of operations are made. So less signs save money. But less signs save time, too, because signs will never be a substitute for a clear structure of a building as it always takes time to read and understand them.

One major problem in wayfinding is that there is no signage standardization in the global airport community. Passengers are confronted with all kinds of terms, designs, markings and colorings which often leaves them confused and with a stressful travel experience. A global wayfinding standard would save passengers and airport managements all over the world a lot of time and unnecessary confusion.

Airport Excellence has recently conducted a study involving 12 terminal projects and existing terminal buildings to find out the differences that terminal architecture and design cause regarding passenger flows, capacity and investments. Among the analyzed, mostly regional, airports were Billund Airport, Charleroi, Luxembourg or Sheremetyevo Airport for example. A thorough description of the study isn't possible here as it would take up too much time and space, but what we found out is that basically there are three reasons that make a terminal difficult to "read":               

1. Too many structural levels

2. Different building functions interfering with the passenger flow

3. Terminal architecture and design that might be spectacular but disregard the main function of the building

Consequentially the ideal and efficient terminal building needs a clear, functional design and architecture supported by a clear signage system. Only then will it be possible to provide high capacities and handle many passengers in little time. And, from the non-aviation revenue perspective, only then will passengers feel relaxed and comfortable enough to spend time and money in the shopping and food & beverage areas before heading on to their gates. 

In short, easy and consistent wayfinding

- leads to an ideal passenger flow that allows more passengers to be processed in less time, which means lower costs per passenger

- keeps passengers' stress level low enabling them to enjoy the non-aviation offers, which means more revenue generation