Afer more than 20 years website with a new design/ “responsive webdesign” is core element/ customers require fast, simple and comprehensive information/ besides social media the website is the most important image- and information tool
About 7 years after the last relaunch, Salzburg Airport completely renewed its website including a great number of new features.
“It is quite impressive to see the variety of features the new website offers! Looking back at the beginnings in the late 1990s, we are really speaking quantum leaps. Nowadays a modern website is an essential part of customer service, since customers want quick, significant and comprehensive information”, says Bettina Ganghofer, Managing Director of Salzburg Airport.
The airport website www.salzburg-airport.com celebrated its 20th anniversary last year. Today the website has a fresh, modern look and responsive design. The dynamic and graphic design allows a clean display on all devices. Simple navigation (breadcrumb-navigation) and search function on every page allow users to find the contents desired quickly and easily.
“Thanks to excellent teamwork between the airport and the Austrian agencies LOOP, responsible for Design and HTML-programming, and conextra, backend-programming, we were able to go live with our new website successfully”, says Elisabeth Haslinger, Manager Web & Datea Management at Salzburg Airport.
Highlights:
- Modern “look & feel” (preview of all flights of the current scheduling period with search filters for destination, date, airline and flight number)
- Review of arrivals and departures earlier in the day
- Interactive map with destinations and information about the destinations
- Online reservation tool for parking
- Social media posts on the front page of the website
- Filter options for news and press images
“While re-designing the new airport website, we aimed at creating an intuitive user interface, connecting the processes at the airport closely to the website. For instance, we integrated a module which shows the actual waiting time at the security lane in real time as well as a visual illustration of all possible flights landing or taking off, which simplifies the customer´s search for his or her perfect holiday destination”, says Dominik Maier-Posch, Digital Art Director at LOOP.
For Salzburg Airport, there are 4 good reasons, why a company should offer a modern and informative website:
- If you cannot be found on the internet, you do not exist: unlimited contact opportunities (phone, contact portal, email addresses, social media, newsletter – a majority of customers look for information online)
- Your competitors do not sleep – increase revenues (Google has a wide range of offers – being a part of it is compulsory to address new clients and to inform about new services)
- Control over markets and target groups as well as the public image, making use of up-to-dateness (there is no information medium working faster that the internet: deliver customer-oriented information)
“When we were doing the backend-programming for the website of the airport, our priority was to create a design allowing a maximum of performance and usability. Thanks to the excellent cooperation of all interfaces, we were able to succeed and can now present a website with a wealth of new funktions”, says Simon Brandstätter, Senior Web Developer bei conextra GmbH.
A Look Back – 20 Years Airport Website
In 1997 the first airport website went online – Salzburg Airport was then a kind of pioneer in this new field of information for its customers. In the beginning there was a single computer with internet access at the airport and access was strictly regulated. 20 years ago, using the internet was only possible, when accompanied by the manager of the IT-department. At that time fax, telex, letters and the good old typewriter were “state of the art. Once online, the airport website still couldn´t be found at the end of 1997. The search engine Altavista did not go online until about a month later. As part of an internet support program, the domain www.salzburg-airport.com was announced on March 25th 1997 with TABNet. TABNet at that time was the most important domain registration authority worldwide. The company TechConsult which later become Conova designed the first website for Salzburg Airport. Today about 2.200 users visit the website daily. Over the last two decades, the website has been relaunched a couple of times – last in 2011. The agency pixelart not only designed a desktop, but also a mobile version. In 2008 there was already a quite simple version for mobile devices. Salzburg Airport was the first airport in the German-speaking area to offer weekly previews of its take-offs and landings online and was one of the first European airports to have an own webcam.
