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SYDNEY, June 18, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Committed to getting the world safely travelling again, Collinson, a global leader in travel experience and loyalty, and owner and operator of Priority Pass (the leading airport experiences programme), today announces a trio of new initiatives to boost health and safety for airport lounge staff and guests and pioneer the new era of contactless journey for the airport. The initiatives include a new set of global health and safety standards for airport lounges within the Priority Pass network, a new digital solution to enable more socially-distant and touch-free food and beverage ordering in the lounge, and a further digital enhancement to enable a more contact-free entrance.
As a privately-owned, US$1bn company, Collinson has more than 30 years' experience delivering customer benefits and loyalty to some of the world's leading brands within the financial services and travel sectors, including CBA and Westpac. Collinson's investment in this trio of new initiatives is part of a global vision to help protect the safety and welfare of their clients' customers, while ensuring airport lounges continue to provide a unique and personal experience – helping those who love to travel welcome the return of air travel with confidence.
Andy Besant, Director of Travel Experiences at Collinson, said, "COVID-19 has radically altered what travellers need and expect from the airport journey. As a global leader in airport lounges and the travel journey, and operator of the market-leading airport experiences programme Priority Pass as well as our own airport lounges under The Club and Club Aspire brands, we at Collinson are dedicated to developing new initiatives that ensure travellers feel safe and comfortable at the airport. We are now putting our unique passion and experience in travel towards developing robust solutions for airport wellbeing, which we believe is the best way to help drive a safe and effective recovery for the travel sector."
Collinson's global airport lounge standards
As the world recovers from COVID-19, health and safety at the airport will be key to rebuilding traveller confidence and championing the travel sector recovery. In service to this, Collinson is now launching a set of global health and safety standards for airport lounges. The standards comprise a number of recommended steps, including:
Collinson's airport lounge standards were developed with input from the company's in-house Global Medical Director, Dr. Simon Worrell, a specialist expert in virus management, immunology and communicable diseases, with over 20 years of experience in the delivery of international medical assistance and emergency care. The standards will be implemented in all Collinson-owned lounges and recommended for use in all partner lounges across the Collinson airport lounge network, which comprises over 1,200 airport lounges in the market-leading programmes Priority Pass, LoungeKey and Lounge Pass. With the first set of global standards for airport lounges, Collinson encourages lounges around the world to use its standards as a robust foundation for an effective and safe travel recovery.
Contactless Digital Innovation
Collinson is spearheading the contactless airport journey via digital innovation to introduce safer, touch-free experiences into the airport lounge.
Collinson is partnering with Grab, the airport e-commerce platform and largest marketplace for contactless order and pay at airport restaurants, to launch a new pilot solution that will enable airport lounges to introduce a digital food and beverage (F&B) ordering solution. The Collinson solution enables travellers to use their own smartphone or tablet to place their order for F&B available within the lounge and receive it via safe to-table delivery by a staff member or collect it from a dedicated collection point. This will help airport lounges to continue offering a range of options to travellers in a more convenient and controlled manner.
Further evolving the contactless airport experience, contact-free entry is now possible at Collinson lounges, removing the need for members to touch the device to process their transaction. Those using a digital membership card in the Priority Pass, LoungeKey or Mastercard Airport Experiences apps will have an entirely contact-free experience, while those using a physical Priority Pass or payment card will need to insert it into the device, but not touch the device in any other way.
Andy Besant added, "Collinson fully supports getting the world safely travelling again to unlock the value that travel brings, both to the economy, as well as to society at large. At the same time, there's no denying that the coronavirus pandemic has indelibly changed how we think about health and safety at the airport. Via Collinson's airport lounge standards and our new digital innovation for a contact-free experience, we look forward to championing the travel recovery while making health and wellbeing a priority."
About Collinson
Collinson is a global leader in travel experience and loyalty. We deliver exceptional travel, assistance and insurance products that differentiate value propositions, and loyalty solutions that win deeper, more valuable customer relationships.
Our customer benefits products include the world's leading airport experiences programme, Priority Pass, as well as travel insurance, identity assistance, flight delay, international health and travel risk management solutions. Our loyalty expertise uniquely combines strategy, award-winning technology and programme management to create greater engagement and experiences for our clients' customers.
For over 30 years, we've been chosen by the world's leading payment networks, 1,400+ banks, 90+ airlines and 20+ hotel groups to craft customer experiences that win competitive edge. This enables them to acquire, engage and retain the most profitable, but most demanding customers. Our client experience includes American Express, Cathay Pacific, CBA, Mastercard, Radisson Hotel Group, UnionPay and Visa.
About Priority Pass
Priority Pass is the original and market-leading airport experiences programme operated by Collinson. It provides discerning frequent travellers access to over 1300 lounges and airport experiences in over 650 airports across 149 countries, including a growing number of airport dining and spa offerings worldwide that can be accessed in the same way as lounges. Using the Priority Pass app for iOS and Android, members can quickly and easily discover locations welcoming Priority Pass, instantly check their visit entitlement and use their Digital Membership Card to access airport lounges and experiences.
About Grab:
Grab is the largest e-commerce platform in airports worldwide, with omnichannel capabilities including a mobile marketplace, self-service kiosks and order at table technology provided to airports across the world. Grab was founded in 2014 and launched the mobile marketplace at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in 2015.
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