Have you ever wondered why you have to walk so far from the arrival gate to baggage claim on an airport?

Recently, while traveling from Hyderabad to Delhi, I was struck by the seemingly endless walk from Terminal 3 to the baggage claim area. This experience led me to reflect on the design choices that had led to this particular layout. Upon further investigation, I stumbled upon a fascinating case study from Houston airport in 2012.

At the time, the airport had been filled with complaints about long wait times at the baggage claim area, despite the actual distance from the gate to the claim being just over a minute. Rather than attempting to speed up the baggage delivery process, officials made the bold decision to move the arrival gates further away from the baggage claim area. Surprisingly, this resulted in a 6-fold increase in walking distance, but a complete drop in complaints to zero. 

The reason? Travellers felt engaged and occupied during the longer walk, leading them to perceive a shorter wait time, even though the true wait time remained at 8 minutes.

This intriguing example illustrates the power of keeping people occupied and engaged to make time fly by, even when the actual wait time remains constant.