The Emotional Experience Gap: Quantifying passenger trust to drive passenger revenue impact

Airport operators need precise customer insight that captures not only satisfaction but also the emotional ties that shape spending, return visits and recommendations. With annual growth of more than 5.5% forecast for Southeast Asia–North America travel, alongside strong growth from Africa, the Middle East and Latin America to Canadian and U.S. airports, quickly identifying passenger preferences and spending patterns will be essential to protecting non-aeronautical revenue and brand loyalty.¹

That focus must extend across the entire journey, from travel authorization or visa application through arrival. As aviation safety and security regain prominence, airports must reduce passenger stress while using biometrics, baggage imaging, International Remote Baggage Screening and One Stop Security to create an integrated end-to-end experience rather than a sequence of checkpoints.^{2 3}

Adoreboard and Engine demonstrated the value of emotional touchpoints by analyzing 20,000 passenger reviews across five of North America’s largest airports and identifying a $695 million Passenger Revenue Impact. This paper combines that analysis with InterVISTAS’ aviation perspective, showing how integrated data, planning and innovation can help hub and regional airports turn emotional touchpoints into passenger trust and revenue.

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1. https://www.boeing.com/content/dam/boeing/v2/products/commercial-market-outlook/downloads/2026-cmo-download.pdf ↩︎
2. https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/national-media-release/cbp-launches-innovative-international-remote-baggage-screening ↩︎
3. https://www.icao.int/SAM/one-stop-security ↩︎