Dwell time is essentially the duration you spend at an airport or within airport areas before your flight. For many travelers, it’s not something they consciously contemplate.

However, for stakeholders in the air travel industry—such as lounge operators, credit card companies, and airlines—it’s a significant consideration. So, what does your dwell time reveal about you?

Surprisingly, it reveals quite a bit. More crucially, tracking dwell time has spurred significant innovation in airport lounges and terminals, with further advancements likely on the horizon.

Crowding And Dwelling

If it’s built, they will come. Who knew Kevin Costner had such insights about lounges?! In reality, the creation of a lounge guarantees foot traffic; ensuring a quality experience involves a fine balance of art and mathematics. Predicting crowd sizes can be challenging, and many lounges are currently perceived as “overcrowded.”

Understanding the average dwell time of a customer, along with customer profiles, equips lounges with vital tools for forecasting visitor flows, enabling them to gauge food, drink, and other requirements during peak hours.

Moreover, insight into how long travelers spend at the airport helps determine what types of businesses, restaurants, or concessions to provide. This explains the success of fast-service options, even at premium prices like $12 for a bottle of water.

Travelers Have Patterns

It may come as a surprise, but top-tier frequent flyers usually exhibit a significantly lower dwell time compared to those in lower tiers or leisure travelers.

If an airline identifies that its lounge is populated mostly by top-tier members, they can anticipate a quicker turnover. Conversely, when flights are full and predominantly leisure travelers are present, longer dwell times can be expected.

This logic follows easily. Those unfamiliar with the luxuries of an excellent airport lounge tend to arrive earlier, linger longer, and soak up the offerings. They also carry less confidence in check-in and security timings, leading to longer wait periods, alongside a natural inclination to indulge.

For seasoned travelers, however, every moment spent outside the airport is often viewed as a victory; lounges become mere spots for a quick refresh before moving on.

My Dwell Habits Have Evolved

The first time I visited a true first-class lounge, I arrived at the airport as early as possible. I spent hours there, sampling everything available.

I’ve been fortunate enough to visit a wide variety of lounges, indulging in the best experiences, and nowadays, unless something truly exceptional is present, I prefer to minimize my time waiting in airports. While I still treat myself occasionally, my dwell time has significantly decreased.

Recently, while walking through Terminal 2 at Heathrow on my way to the United Club, I realized that my visits to lounges now average about 30 minutes. During that half-hour, I typically enjoy a drink, often skip the food, and mainly utilize the Wi-Fi and calming atmosphere.

I’ve refined my curb-to-security timing at Heathrow to an efficient process, which I appreciate. At other airports with even more predictable checkpoints, I often cut down my time even further, sometimes leaving little to no time for lounge visits.

This raises an interesting question: if everyone were able to perfectly time their curb-to-airside journeys, would they still linger as long? Innovations like TSA PreCheck and CLEAR have greatly enhanced this process, and I anticipate further advancements. Will more travelers adjust their habits as they gain confidence in making their flights even with last-minute arrivals?

Of course, all assumptions change when I travel with my kids. This exemplifies the point that while we think our travel habits are unique, many factors contribute to a fairly predictable pattern of behavior, including dwell time.

Innovations In Response

When lounge access is a prominent perk for frequent flyers, but many top flyers don’t spend significant time in lounges, does that still serve as a compelling selling point?

In response, we’ve seen innovative shifts, notably from Air Canada and Capital One. Both brands have introduced curated “grab and go” options in their lounges to provide passengers with complimentary items of real value—like a nitro cold brew latte or a tasty pastry—to take on the go.

This marks a significant change from the past, where lounges often displayed signs prohibiting the removal of food and drinks. Travelers typically disregarded those rules, and this new approach formalizes a more thoughtful way to meet all traveler needs.

The pivotal question remains: what innovative value additions will enhance the traveler’s airport experience next? We encourage you to share your own lounge and travel habits.