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Metropolitan Airports Commission’s vision for customer-centric services and facilities at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport
Journal of Airport Management,
16
(1),
49-62
(2021)
Abstract
Years ago, the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) declared its vision is: ‘Providing your best airport experience’. To that end, MAC has been creatively determining strategies for how and where to provide enhanced services for not just the passengers, but for employees as well. By tapping into the passengers using the airport as well as the employees providing the service, the MAC formed a Customer Service Action Council (CSAC) to develop customer training, rewards programmes and a forum for discussing what MSP can do better to meet the needs for all. The MAC also tasked the airport development design teams to incorporate customercentric amenities into construction wherever they can to ease stress, enhance joy and create a facility that is equitable to the endless variety of passengers and employees. These two strategies, coupled with an overall attitude of infusing customer service into all things, has created the opportunities MAC needed to elevate the quality of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) facilities and boost ASQ scores. This paper describes the strategies which, although disrupted with the 2020 COVID-19 turndown, resulted in a pre-COVID four-year run of ASQ’s Best Airport in North America award for airports in the 25−40m passenger category.
Keywords: Customer service; accessibility; strategies; modernisation; art; sustainability
The full article is available to subscribers to the journal.
Author's Biography
Bridget M. Rief leads the planning and development division of the Metropolitan Airport Commission (MAC). In this role as Vice President, she oversees the MAC’s annual capital improvement programme and all planning, design, construction and environmental affairs/ compliance at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and six general aviation airports in the Greater MSP region. Involved with all aspects of airport development— from initial planning to environmental review to construction, Rief guides and influences project priorities and sustainable design for MAC projects. Bridget leads the effort in developing and implementing MAC’s annual Capital Improvement Program. She plays a key role in coordinating planning and environmental review documents. Bridget serves as the co-chair of the MAC’s executive sustainability committee and currently chairs the ACI-NA sustainability working group within the Environmental Affairs Committee. During her 28-year aviation career, Bridget has enjoyed working with community representatives, airlines, airport tenants and governmental agencies to enhance relationships and facilitate the successful completion of construction projects. Bridget graduated from the University of Minnesota with a Civil Engineering degree. She is also a graduate of the Hamline University Public Works Leadership Academy.
Phil Burke is the Director of MSP Operations at the Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport (MSP), the largest of seven airports owned and operated by the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC). Phil joined the MAC in 2001 in the Commercial Management and Airline Affairs Department. Three years later he was named the Assistant Director of MSP Operations/Facilities. In 2013, Phil was promoted to the Director of Operations at MSP. Prior to joining the MAC, Phil worked for Mesaba Airlines. He earned a business administration degree from the University of North Dakota with a major in airport administration. Phil also earned a Master’s degree in organisational leadership at Bethel University in June 2014.
