Augmented Reality in Airports: Ignite Revenue and Cut $18M in Losses

A peer-reviewed ScienceDirect study (Wu et al., 2024) found that a 10% increase in passenger dwell time can raise non-aeronautical revenues by around 5–8%, particularly across retail and F&B segments. This means that unclear or outdated wayfinding systems, which shorten dwell time, can significantly reduce potential revenue growth.

Here, we’ll discuss various ways in which augmented reality in Airports elevates core operations and contributes directly to their profitability. We’ll start by calculating the often-overlooked costs that lost passengers incur, and then continue with AR applications that can address related issues, as well as provide some examples of well-known hubs that are already adopting this technology.

The Hidden Cost of Lost Passengers in Airports

Confused passengers who can’t find their way are costly for airports. The reason is that they won’t contribute to the airport’s commercial revenues, which account for around 40% of the total income, yet generate around 80% of the profit,According to industry data from Aviation Year Zero. Lost travelers are too nervous; they think about nothing but finding their way to the plane on time.

ACI World Economics, an industry association report, reveals that non-aeronautical revenue is regionally variable and was USD 54 bn globally in 2023. Per-passenger yields vary widely, so you should calculate the exact number for your own with exclusive data.

In general, lost passengers are usually stressed because they fear they may miss their flight. Therefore, they have less free time to visit stores and restaurants, so they won’t spend a penny, resulting in reduced non-aeronautical revenue.

As stated at the beginning of the blog, unclear or inefficient wayfinding systems can shorten passenger dwell time, which in turn reduces opportunities for retail and food and beverage spending. This directly cuts into potential non-aeronautical revenue growth.

Let’s assume only 3% of passengers skip shopping and do not use the airport’s non-aeronautical offerings. This translates into a 30-cent loss per traveler.

Note: This is an illustrative calculation based on public data from ACI World Economics 2023 and typical per-passenger retail yields.

With these assumptions, at a mid-sized airport that hosts around 20 million passengers annually, the estimated lost retail revenue is approximately $6 million. Naturally, numbers increase for larger airports. For example, in a huge hub that accommodates 60 million passengers each year, poor navigation can result in a loss of $18 million.

This highlights the importance of enhancing passenger wayfinding in airports, and fortunately, introducing an augmented reality airport experience can effectively address this issue.

Wondering how this is possible? Keep reading as we answer this question.

AR in Airports: Helping Passengers Find Their Way Faster

Static maps are largely obsolete. It’s been a few years since online maps and navigators took their place, and similarly, airports should adopt AR solutions to guide passengers more effectively.

The first and foremost difference lies in the dynamic nature of augmented reality navigation. AR provides real-time data, informing people of instantaneous crowd levels and blockages.

Another advantage of using augmented reality in airports is that it helps passengers navigate with ease. They simply use their smartphone’s camera and find their way to the destination by following a blue line. Additionally, AR glasses such as Meta and Apple Vision Pro, along with VR headsets, now allow passengers to follow virtual directions hands-free through their devices, further streamlining the navigation process.

Gatwick Airport has been utilizing this airport wayfinding technology for years, as reported by the industry publication Future Travel Experience, letting travelers follow virtual lines on their phones. Airport managers installed beacons throughout the terminal to create these virtual lines.

In terms of accuracy, Peer-reviewed studies in IEEE Xplore and PMC show that positioning precision depends on the technology used. UWB and LiDAR or visual-SLAM systems can achieve sub-meter or decimeter-level accuracy under well-calibrated conditions, while Wi-Fi RTT typically provides around 0.5–2 meters accuracy when optimally deployed. BLE beacons alone usually offer meter-level precision (approximately 2–5 meters) unless fused with other sensors or advanced calibration methods.

In summary, AR indoor navigation at airports offers stakeholders several benefits, including:

• Reduced friction: Passengers are less stressed and have more free time to visit stores and make a purchase.
• Fewer wayfinding interventions: Fewer travelers will ask staff for help in finding their way, allowing employers to focus on their primary responsibilities, which leads to higher efficiency.
• Operational agility: Any changes will be instantly implemented on the AR infrastructure, preventing passengers from getting lost due to temporary or permanent reassignments.
• Increased passenger satisfaction: Eliminating stressful factors will increase the satisfaction rate and also dwell time, which, as noted earlier, has a significant impact on non-aero revenue.

In the next section, we’ll focus on how augmented reality in airports can improve engagement with shops and retailers.

How AR Turns Passengers into Shoppers

In addition to the benefits that AR in airports offers by reducing navigational challenges, it’s impossible to neglect its direct role in increasing retail engagement. With proper planning, aviation retail managers can convert passenger downtime into shopping time, thereby enhancing the terminal’s commercial revenue.

A vendor blog post on Zigpoll reports campaign-specific findings suggesting that interactive, immersive promotions can capture attention up to four times longer than static ads, whether printed on billboards or displayed on screens. Besides AR shopping promotions, airport restaurants and cafés can also benefit from AR ads, attracting passengers waiting for their boarding call.

Imagine a traveler waiting to board a plane and using their phone to receive a discount on a burger at an indoor restaurant. If attractive enough, an ad can capture the passenger’s attention and, after they accept the offer, guide them toward the restaurant with a navigational line, which we explained earlier.

Augmented reality opens up endless creative possibilities. AR try-on retail is an excellent option for shops in the hub, providing waiting passengers with an entertaining and immersive experience.

When it comes to marketing impact, both vendor case studies and independent industry research (e.g., NielsenIQ and PwC) report that AR campaigns can meaningfully boost engagement and purchase intent. The uplift varies by campaign and format, typically ranging from about 20% to 80% in engagement metrics, with intent increases depending on the category and creative execution.

Therefore, a combination of using creative approaches and offering charming deals will likely lead to a purchase.

There’s a simple logic that justifies the achievements of immersive duty-free AR:

The more memorable and engaging the experience, the more likely passive passengers are to turn into paying customers who benefit airport retailers.

Until now, we’ve explained how AR in airports helps enhance diverse workflows. Let’s take a closer look at how augmented reality improves airport operational efficiency.

AR’s Key Role in Airport Operational Efficiency, Safety, and Staff Training

Airport operators can leverage AR-powered systems to effectively monitor staff workflow, prioritizing each employee’s main responsibility in real time. This means AR in airports not only helps solve navigational issues and increase in-terminal retail revenue, but also allows managers to assign tasks more accurately.

In other words, augmented reality can act as a force multiplier, making complex operations easier. Moreover, utilizing this technology enables terminal officials to enhance safety and improve the effectiveness of staff training.

Simply put, with a cohesive AR foundation, each employee can check their phone or tablet to view job-critical overlays. AR smart glasses can take this further by freeing workers’ hands during operations. Mechanics, baggage handlers, and maintenance teams can use head-mounted displays to view live instructions and safety overlays directly within their field of vision. This significantly shortens turnaround times, and when used in training, can better prepare staff to address real issues in the airport.

The trade publication XR TODAY reports that employing immersive methods in training staff yields 30% to 70% faster learning curves. Also, this report claims that AR training delivers better ROI compared to traditional methods. The same study reveals a higher retention rate, up to 40% higher than text- or video-based training. This shows that using augmented reality for training can expedite the preparation phase.

Additionally, AR airport operations help reduce errors for guided tasks. For example, repairing a broken unit becomes straightforward with such systems. Even new employees can use overlays and real-time instruction to proceed step by step and fix the problem. Another industry trade outlet AVIATIONPROS explains this in detail in a comprehensive blog.

Overall, AR aviation safety training, besides implementing an augmented reality foundation in various stages to empower staff to perform tasks more accurately, positively impacts operational efficiency by:

• Optimizing capacity
• Reducing costly reworks
• Preventing safety incidents
• Lowering regulatory fines
• Delivering live operational insights

Another key advantage of AR in airports is that it enables personalizing the customer journey. We’ll explore this ability in the next section.

AR in Airports: Creating a More Personalized Passenger Journey

Personalizing experiences through AR enables terminal operators to cater to different segments of travelers, including families with young children, the elderly, individuals with disabilities, and more. Creating different overlays for various needs, offering multilingual services through augmented reality, and personalizing promotional offers help airports achieve a higher customer satisfaction rate.

Let’s review the key advantages AR passenger personalization airports can gain:

Feature	Benefits
AR Multilingual Navigation	Allow foreign travelers to find their destination more easily and read shop labels in their language
Accessibility Support	Helps older adults and disabled individuals find their designated routes
Contextual Prompts and Offers	Offers personalized promotions, such as toy stores for families with kids, to travelers according to their specific situations and needs
Real-Time Translation	Allows passengers to translate signs and even staff conversations in real time, through AR

It’s good to know that a press-reported article on Airport Technology states that more and more airports worldwide are adopting AR technology to enhance accessibility. Airports are also using AR to personalize the passenger journey in various creative ways.

Overall, enhancing the passenger experience, increasing trust, forming loyalty, improving revenue, and streamlining diverse operations are the primary advantages of AR accessibility at airports that leverage it to personalize the customer journey.

Now, let’s see how leading airports are already applying these strategies in practice.

4 Real-World Applications of Augmented Reality in Airports

Here we’ll discuss four well-known hubs that are among the largest airports in the world, and see how they’re leveraging augmented reality to enhance core operations.

Changi Airport, Singapore

The principal international airport of Singapore is one of the most renowned terminals in the world, famous for its distinctive design.

At Changi Airport, SATS and Changi Airport Group piloted AR smart-glasses for around 600 ramp staff to display real-time loading instructions. This was a pilot program reported by Flight Safety Australia and The Straits Times.

Early trial results reported potential time savings of up to 15 minutes per turnaround, though outcomes may vary depending on aircraft type and operational conditions. This pilot demonstrates how AR can streamline ramp operations and improve situational awareness.

Officials also utilized augmented reality in airports to empower engineers with the latest technology, enabling them to better handle maintenance tasks. Technicians have access to a system called the Augmented Underground Services Visualizer (AUSV), which allows them to see buried pipes, wires, and ducts through AR tablets and identify issues using centimeter-level 3D models. This means that diagnosing broken parts and units becomes straightforward, saving engineers from the hassle of having to dig into the ground to solve the problem.

Regarding non-aero revenue, TRBusiness says that duty-free stores across the terminal offer interactive experiences, such as AR selfies and product discovery through AR, which attract waiting travelers and increase their dwell time, thereby contributing to the airport’s commercial revenue.

Additionally, Jewel-rassic Quest is an entertaining AR experience designed to provide waiting passengers with a fun time at Changi. Travelers can use their phones and tablets’ cameras to explore indoor gardens and hunt for virtual dinosaurs within a parallel world at Changi. Each small challenge people overcome in this quest comes with a prize.

Aviation operators planned this entertaining experience strategically. Since people have to walk around the hub hunting dinosaurs, they effectively gamified the exploration of different areas of the airport, and even guided overlayed passengers toward various retailers.

Overall, empowering staff with AR systems and offering immersive experiences to passengers helps increase the operational ROI of the hub and boost commercial revenue.

Dubai Airport, UAE

Dubai International Airport, DXB, is one of the busiest hubs in the Middle East and the world, and is an excellent example of how to leverage AR in airports. Let’s explore four ways DXB leverages augmented reality.

DXB is a leader in facilitating navigation through AR. Virtual lines, arrows, and overlays that travelers can see with their smartphones’ cameras help them find their way.

Additionally, aviation retail managers are well aware of AR’s potential to increase retail engagement and improve commercial revenue. According to a vendor case study Lagardere, the world’s largest Lego Store, located inside Dubai Airport, offers visitors an AR experience called Digibox. Shoppers can point their phones’ cameras at a set of Lego and see they come to life with attractive animations and motions. Likewise, more and more retailers within DXB are adopting AR offerings to inform waiting passengers of live deals, as As reported by AR vendor Kivisense in their campaign blog. The goal is to encourage travelers to stop by and make a purchase.

The next criterion in which AR’s footprint can be witnessed is the infrastructure, data, and tech backbone. Airport managers have equipped staff with AR systems that help them manage tasks more efficiently. Arab News reports that Dubai Airports’ leadership credits their ability to handle around 93 million passengers with 1,800 staff to a broad portfolio of digital transformation initiatives, including AI, automation, and smart technologies. Augmented reality is part of this wider ecosystem, supporting the airport’s efficiency and passenger experience improvements.

Istanbul Airport, Türkiye

Istanbul’s recently established airport is one of the most modern hubs globally and is utilizing AR for various purposes, as expected of an advanced terminal. This airport’s official application features a virtual assistant named CIGA, which helps passengers find their way to retail and dining areas.

Trade media coverage in International Airport Review says that passengers at this airport can use AR for exploring offers, viewing each item in 3D models, and following a more engaging route through the terminal. Predictably, special offers and seasonal discounts are also announced to users through this official app, along with its interactive AR features.

AeroTime, a press-reported outlet, has reviewed this airport wayfinding technology and claims that Istanbul’s hub solution is among the best ones globally. The official application not only helps in finding routes and notifying overlayed passengers of retailers, but also allows people to track their children and loved ones.

Although there are no approved statistics, according to a vendor press release by SAS, a press release claims that Istanbul Airport saw a significant rise in non-aeronautical revenue by leveraging AR shopping solutions in its app, along with virtual guidance, CIGA.

Gatwick Airport, England

The last case study that proves the advantages of using AR in airports is about London Gatwick Airport. Earlier in this blog, we discussed the use of augmented reality in this terminal; now, let’s take a closer look.

By installing 2,000 Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons across its north and south terminals, aviation operators created a highly accurate navigation system, enabling both staff and passengers to navigate more easily. As reported by reported by the tech media outlet TNW, thanks to the beacon grid, accuracy is roughly 3 meters.

Unlike the previous examples we explained, this large terminal’s publicly documented AR efforts mainly focus on navigation accuracy rather than retail engagement or staff training. However, their creative approach to utilizing AR, combined with BLE beacons, for maximum accuracy, was worth discussing.

These case studies clearly show that AR in airports isn’t a futuristic idea; it’s a proven driver of efficiency and engagement

If you’re ready to enhance your airport operations and passenger experience with augmented reality, we can help you make it happen.

How Immexive Can Help Airports Increase Revenue and Operate More Efficiently

AR airport operations can notably increase efficiency across different areas. In particular, it enhances passenger navigation and boosts the terminal’s commercial revenue, which accounts for about 40% of total revenue yet generates around 80% of profit. These gains can be achieved by strategically leveraging augmented reality in airports.

Key Takeaways:

• Research indicates that even a 3% decline in passenger shopping activity, resulting from poor wayfinding, can result in $6 million in lost retail revenue at mid-sized airports and up to $18 million at major hubs.
• Real-time, AR wayfinding technology helps passengers reach their destinations faster, reduces stress, and improves dwell time.
• Interactive AR campaigns capture up to four times more attention and can increase purchase intent by 20–40%, transforming idle passengers into active shoppers.
• From 30–70% faster learning curves in training to reduced operational errors and turnaround times, AR enables airports to operate more safely and efficiently while improving workforce productivity.

What to Do Next:

• Do now: Book a free consultation with Immexive to explore how AR navigation, immersive retail, and staff training can increase your airport’s efficiency and non-aeronautical revenue.
• Learn: Browse the Works page to see how leading brands and organizations across various industries are utilizing AR and immersive technology to enhance customer engagement and operational performance.
• Decide: Contact us through the Immexive Contact Page to discuss your airport’s unique challenges and design a personalized AR implementation plan that delivers measurable results.

FAQ

How does augmented reality improve the passenger experience in airports?

Augmented reality helps passengers navigate airports easily with real-time directions, translations, and personalized prompts. It reduces stress, saves time, and makes the journey more engaging and convenient.

What are the business benefits of AR for airport operators and retailers?

AR increases non-aeronautical revenue by turning waiting time into shopping time and boosting passenger engagement. It also improves efficiency, reduces staff workload, and enhances overall customer satisfaction.

How can AR technology be integrated into existing airport systems?

AR integrates seamlessly through APIs that connect it with existing airport apps, WiFi, and sensor networks. It uses data from beacons, cameras, and IoT systems to deliver real-time, interactive overlays without disrupting current operations.

How does AR support airport staff training and operational safety?

AR provides step-by-step visual instructions and real-time overlays that help staff learn procedures faster and perform tasks more accurately. It also improves safety by simulating real scenarios and highlighting potential hazards before they occur.