Navigating new airports is not an easy experience for most people and a good indoor navigation system can certainly be great help for most travellers. In order to offer the same, George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) and William P. Hobby Airport (HOU) are rolling out a new way finding system on the Houston Airport System’s fly2houston.com website this month.
What is interesting about this system, developed by San Francisco-based company LocusLabs, is that it won’t require travellers to have the airport apps to use the navigation system. Instead, it will be accessible through the fly2houston.com website through a web interface without any download. This makes the system more accessible as most travellers are otherwise forced to download the airport apps for a trip or two without really gaining any serious value out of it. This system makes the interactive maps accessible from any device, including a laptop using web browser and offers transit paths.
Both graphic and text directions are provided and each step of the path has turn-by-turn points listed, as well the estimated time it will take to walk to the destination. As important, it offers searchable navigation, with location information and search terms for points of interest including gates, ground transportation, ticket kiosks, shops, restaurants, security checkpoints, and more.
“For the Houston Airport System, the accessibility of this new technology is as exciting as being chosen as pilot airports for its launch,” said Kathleen Boyd, Head of Marketing for the Houston Airport System. “The fact that there is no app necessary — that travelers at our airports can use it simply by going to fly2houston.com on their smart device — offers another powerful and valuable tool to our customers, who already use our passenger journey-focused award-winning website to find a wide variety of information and services on a daily basis. It is another step towards meeting our strategic objective to “Make Our Passengers Happy.”
The fly2houston.com website has earned accolades from industry leaders and customers since its re-imagined makeover a year ago. This new technology enhances its passenger journey-focused approach with faster and easier feed updates, providing users with more real-time updates on airport services and amenities as well as up-to-the-minute updates on the airport footprint and points of interest information. Airport maps are some of the most-visited pages on the fly2houston.com website, and with the new technology providing precise navigation throughout both airports, travellers will be able to better use them.
