Engaging passengers across digital channels: An international study of 100 airports

The growth in digital channel adoption has allowed airports to gain competitive advantage through innovative offerings to passengers. This study aims understand the role of digital channel usage and airport ranking by exploring the one hundred (100) top-ranked airport's mission statements and digital channels. This study contributes to research by providing a bridge between these separate bodies of research, conceptually integrating company strategy to indicate appropriate digital channel usage. The findings suggest that airport technology usage does influence the overall service ranking. The results of this study also have several implications for both theories and industry by establishing a level of requirement for digital channels for airports and the development of the digital channel selection model. Providing information and recommendations on current digital channel use, thus enabling airports to benchmark their performance across digital channel platforms. The paper offers original insights into the growing phenomenon which is currently underreported in academic literature.