Ageing society and the level of service at airports: A cross-cultural perspective

This paper aims to raise a necessity of reviewing airport design standards in order to accommodate the increasing senior population and passenger traffic worldwide providing an adequate Level of Service (LOS). In addition, this paper calls in question the relationship between personal space and passengers' service satisfaction for the future operations of international airports, as well as the relationship between individual's requirement of personal space within the air terminal and their age and cultural background. Total 60 Australian and Korean volunteers who travelled by air recently participated in the study. Through in-depth interview, questionnaire, and the Repertory Grid Technique (RGT), it was confirmed that passengers' perceptions to personal space within the terminal vary across age and cultural groups and crowdedness also affects their service satisfaction. The results will provide the link to the further simulation study to suggest alternative terminal designs standards for international airports.