A Baggage as a Service ecosystem for Amsterdam Airport Schiphol

Abstract

By 2029, a baggage handling capacity shortage at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is expected due to the foreseen growth in the aviation industry. Research has shown that the current method of baggage handling already puts pressure on the baggage handling system and its stakeholders, resulting in critical peaks during the day, especially in the holiday season. Schiphol wants to optimize the current baggage handling process with innovative solutions since expanding baggage capacity with implementing new assets is not sustainable due to governmental restrictions.
Research stated that 20% of the check-in baggage must be inserted into the baggage handling system before peak hours to realize the desired spread of baggage handling throughout the day (peak shaving). Schiphol can realize this if the check-in baggage arrives at the airport earlier than in the current situation. Therefore, passengers need to be nudged to change their travel behavior with hold baggage. Commercial baggage pick-up services exist in the market, and such a type of baggage service (BaaS) was the starting point of this research.
The research question stated: How can we build a BaaS ecosystem in order to nudge passengers to use early entry baggage check-in services to make optimal use of the baggage handling capacity at AAS?
Conclusions from this thesis indicate that Schiphol should collaborate with existing commercial baggage pick-up parties to use their infrastructure as part of the ecosystem. Secondly, airlines are the key factor in offering the baggage pick-up service to their passengers since passengers prefer to book the service as part of the travel booking with the airline. The challenge of the project was to design a unique baggage service concept that will be attractive for airlines to offer to their passengers, that will be valuable for passengers to use, and that will realize peak shaving. The challenge included identifying the role of Schiphol in setting up this ecosystem.
A baggage home pick-up service is designed for passengers traveling with hold baggage, called the EASY TRAVEL service. The service is created to attract holiday travelers by responding to the need for convenient traveling without hold baggage to and at Schiphol. The EASY TRAVEL service consists of three features that provide extra value to passengers and help nudge them to use the service; a trustworthy and transparent baggage service, a reward & benefit system and personalized travel advice.
This thesis recommended that Schiphol should take the lead in building the ecosystem by collaborating with the necessary third parties to provide the baggage service. By introducing the EASY TRAVEL service, Schiphol can influence the timing of processing check-in baggage to shave the expected capacity peak. Airlines will be the interface towards their passengers and will offer the EASY TRAVEL service as an additional service on their booking platform. Schiphol will develop an Application Programmed Interface (API) that will serve as an interface tool to support this ecosystem where the backend of the three service features is arranged. This API can be easily integrated by the existing apps of airlines and can be adapted to their own brand, making it attractive for airlines to implement it.
An implementation roadmap is created for Schiphol, which emphasizes starting with a pilot of the EASY TRAVEL service and ecosystem with a few airlines who are interested in participating and one commercial third party. The evaluation and learnings from the pilot will help create a working and proven service that will attract more airlines and third parties to participate and realize the desired peak shaving on a larger scale by 2029.