Universally, customers are the most important factor in the airline industry, and William P. Hobby Airport (HOU) continuously strives to make every aspect of the customer experience exceptional. In doing so, General Manager Liliana Rambo said that she has found that the simplest way is often the best way.

Even when it comes to our public address system.

In late October, HOU unveiled its latest improvement designed to make the travel experience even better – an improved terminal paging system, Simpleway. “Simpleway is designed to provide automated communications for the passengers and is user-friendly,” said Monica Horvath, Interim Division Manager for Landside Operations at HOU. 

Simpleway is the “voice of an airport.” It is a system that is capable of speaking several languages and delivering a variety of announcements through the public address system to passengers waiting for up-to-date information.  The system has two main goals: to increase passenger service quality and to increase the speed of standard airport processes.

“With the use of Simpleway, our airlines can broadcast pre-recorded and approved automated messages to the passengers and reach a wider variety of passengers through six different languages,” Horvath said.

Each of the airlines at HOU provided their own airline-branded announcements  to be pre-recorded and automated for their terminal paging.  Gate users access the paging functionality from a touch screen paging station and microphone that are installed at each gate.   

Simpleway also allows HOU to deliver lifelike quality announcements that are broadcast in a uniform, congenial tone instead of through manual paging by speaking without a script.

Gina Barrington, HAS IT Project Manager, spearheaded the project with her dedicated team.  Barrington pointed out that this was a joint effort between the Houston Airport System and the airlines as HAS needed the airlines’ scripts to record in Simpleway. Simpleway is planned to be deployed at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in the first quarter of 2020. 

HAS is the first airport in the country to install Simpleway paging stations.

Throughout the U.S. and world, airports are continuing the trend to automate messages and take advantage of the great benefits that offers.

“Automated messaging is already common in most airports to deliver messaging pertaining to safety and security so streamlining our frequently used messaging puts us in line with improved passenger communication,” Horvath said.