In a pilot programme in partnership with Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and AtYourGate, the LAX Order Now delivery service has begun using help from a two-wheeled, semi-autonomous robot helper called NomNom.

Robotic ambassador: Cargo robot NomNom accompanies AtYourGate staff who deliver F&B orders across the airport from LAX Order Now

Cargo robot NomNom can carry up to 40 pounds of food at a time as it follows behind delivery staff from AtYourGate, which delivers food ordered via LAX Order Now.

The robot can move at speeds up to 6mph and uses a series of cameras and sensors to recognize and follow its handler throughout the airport.

Robots like NomNom are set to become a regular feature in US airports in the contactless era accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic

LAX Order Now offers contactless order pickup from restaurants, with optional delivery available directly to the gate areas in selected terminals.

Guests can scan QR codes throughout the terminals or visit the LAX Order Now website to browse menus, place an order and pay.

At the checkout stage, guests in eligible terminals who require delivery select that option and pay an additional delivery fee.

Guests are notified on their mobile device when orders are on their way and when they arrive in the designated gate area. Each participating restaurant provides an estimated delivery time to help ensure food arrives prior to flight departure.

A special promotion will run on the upcoming Labor Day weekend, when guests can use the coupon code LAXNomNom for -25% off their online food orders on 12 September.

Original article here.

Airport retail concessions developer Fraport USA has partnered with hospitality platform Servy to introduce the new Fraport-branded mobile ordering and delivery service, GateWaiter, at selected US airports.

The platform, powered by Servy’s Grab Airport Marketplace technology, launched in August at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport and Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, with plans to expand to other airports.

Passengers and staff at participating airports can place contactless orders for food and drink using their smartphones, with the option of having their choices delivered to them at a location of their choosing.

The GateWaiter delivery service, managed by AtYourGate in partnership with Servy, integrates with the GateWaiter mobile ordering platform to arrange delivery of the order to guests. QR codes will be placed on rocking chair armrests and across common area seating at Baltimore-Washington Airport. These codes can be scanned on digital devices to bring up menu options and act as a delivery point for meal orders.

For launch, the service includes over 12 restaurants as well as retail outlets at Baltimore-Washington Airport with more locations to be added in the coming weeks. At Cleveland Airport, hometown brands Great Lakes Brewing Company and Inca Tea Café join other popular restaurants with more locations being added.

Special delivery: Baltimore/Washington Airport Executive Director Ricky Smith receives one of the first orders through the GateWaiter system. Below, Servy Chief Experience Officer Jeff Livney salutes the launch.

Servy Chief Experience Officer Jeff Livney said: “It’s great to be announcing our new partnership with Fraport USA, which is real proof of their commitment to improving the guest experience for travellers. This new service will offer a convenient, contactless self-service option, reducing touchpoints for passengers and enabling them to easily order and purchase meals while maintaining social distancing.”

Fraport USA CEO Michael Mullaney said: “Providing great passenger service is one of our priorities, and our new GateWaiter mobile ordering and delivery service will enable us to add further value and reach more customers during their visit to the airport. Rolling this programme out across airports makes it a seamless process that can be scaled quickly as we bring additional airports and outlets onboard. This is clearly a major benefit in the current landscape.”

Chris Hartman, Chief Experience Officer at AtYourGate, added: “We are thrilled to be partnering with Servy and Fraport USA to provide the delivery experience for these exciting new programmes. [They] will provide guests greater access to shopping and dining options while travelling, including the option for safe and convenient delivery right to their gate.”

Speaking about the service at Baltimore/Washing Airport. Fraport Maryland Vice President Gary Gilliard said: “With our fully integrated mobile platform, we are elevating the guest experience by offering another convenient option when it comes to mealtime and snack time. Passengers can have sweet Maryland crab cakes or tangy tacos delivered to their gate with a simple scan of a QR code on their smartphone.”

Baltimore/Washington Airport Executive Director Ricky Smith said: “GateWaiter provides a convenient new service that will improve the passenger experience. We are focused on delivering high customer satisfaction and new amenities that will benefit our passengers. This innovation offers a simple, touchless way to deliver excellent food options right to travelers throughout the airport.”

Original article here

The program is an extension of the airport’s mobile platform that allows contactless ordering, payment and pickup at restaurants through LAXOrderNow.com.

“Our guests have told us they want greater access to airport information and services through their mobile devices so they can have more control of their travel journey,” said Justin Erbacci, CEO of Los Angeles World Airports. “Offering food and beverage delivery to the gate areas is yet another game-changing feature that sets the new LAX experience apart for its convenience and range of options.”

Travelers will be able to use LAXOrderNow.com to browse airport menus, order and pay will be able to select the delivery option for an extra fee.

They’ll then be notified when their meals are out for delivery and when the delivery person has arrived.

For now, delivery is being offered at the Tom Bradley Terminal, but LAWA expects to expand the service.

Participating restaurants include Vino Volo, Border Grill and ink.sack. Later this week, Panda Express and KFC will join and more are expected to join soon, airport officials said.

Original story here

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By Jay Cridlin

Say you’re waiting for a Southwest Airlines flight from Airside C at Tampa International Airport, but you’re craving a Columbia Cuban sandwich from Airside E.

Or you’re flying Delta out of Airside E, but you’d really like a plate of Firecracker Shrimp from RumFish Grill in Airside C.

The airport now has you covered.

Tampa International on Monday rolled out an expanded version of TPA to Go, a new service offering touchless delivery to any terminal from more than 20 restaurant locations around the airport.

The service, found at TPAtoGo.com and powered by the delivery apps Grab and AtYourGate, has been in limited use since December, as the airport looked for ways to offer contact-free food service as business picked up throughout of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We’ve been tweaking and perfecting the system for several months,” said airport spokeswoman Veronica Cintron. “We did a soft launch earlier this month and are now launching it to the public.”

Several local restaurants are featured in the program, including airport outposts of the Columbia Restaurant, Cigar City Brewing, Mise en Place, Burger 21, Ducky’s Sports Lounge, Goody Goody, Ulele and RumFish Grill. Participating chains include Pei Wei, Chik-fil-A, Illy, Wendy’s and Hard Rock Cafe.

Deliveries have a fee of $4.99, but there’s also a free pickup and carryout option for restaurants in your terminal.

The app comes at a time when staffing at some airport restaurants is on the rise. Concessionaires operating out of Tampa International Airport had shed more than 800 jobs during the pandemic, although some have staffed back up in recent months. Tampa International Airport recently held a hiring fair where concessionaires hoped to fill 185 jobs.

Cintron said programs like TPA to Go are also in operation at airports in Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Dallas and Minneapolis-St. Paul. Grab and AtYourGate plan to roll them out in another half-dozen airports by this summer.

Original article from Tampa Bay Times.

They have also collaborated in airports where both companies were present with relaunched programmes powered by Servy’s Grab Airport Marketplace technology.

AtYourGate is described as the leading in-airport food and retail mobile ordering and delivery service for travellers, flight crews and airport employees

These programmes are now up and running in six airports – Chicago Midway International, Minneapolis-Saint Paul International, Boston Logan International, Philadelphia International, Dallas Fort Worth International and Tampa International – with plans to introduce similar initiatives in at least six additional airports by mid-2021.

Servy Chief Experience Officer Jeff Livney: Making the airport experience better for travellers

Travellers can now access food and drink deliveries through the website of participating airports, some airlines and other day-of-travel channel partners who leverage the Grab Airport Marketplace technology. As a result, more airport guests are choosing to pre-order meals from their digital devices – at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, for example, as many as 22% of Grab orders are now placed through airline apps.

Passengers along with airport and airline staff are also enjoying the option to have their favorite menu items delivered directly at a time and location that suits them. At Chicago Midway International Airport, 75% of orders for local bestseller Nuts on Clark located in Concourse A are delivered to passengers waiting in Concourse B.

Similarly, Chickie’s & Pete’s is the most popular food outlet on the PHL Shop Dine programme and is now making deliveries to all terminals and employee breakrooms from its locations at Philadelphia International Airport.

Airport concessionaires working with Servy and AtYourGate are also benefiting from the partnership. They are seeing incremental orders by reaching new guests who would not have ordered without the convenience of a delivery service. Where Servy and AtYourGate programmes were previously separated, participating outlets are now benefiting from having one source for menu updates and integrations to point of sale – helping to make their operations that much easier.

Servy and AtYourGate are continuing to innovate in order to further improve the guest experience for travellers. At Philadelphia International Airport, for example, AtYourGate has launched a pilot programme with Piaggio Fast Forward to deploy Gita, a robot that assists with food delivery to customers using the airport’s contactless ordering system.

Servy Chief Experience Officer Jeff Livney said: “Our partnership with AtYourGate continues to strengthen as we launch more airport programmes. Enhancing hospitality is at the root of everything we do at Servy, and this service undoubtedly makes the airport experience better for travellers.

“Offering more contactless order and pay and delivery options to travellers means they can spend time in the airport however they like and can avoid areas that are possibly more crowded as enplanements increase.”

AtYourGate Chief Experience Officer Chris Hartman: Allowing passengers to receive their favorite food wherever they may be in the airport

AtYourGate Chief Experience Officer Chris Hartman said: “We’re delighted to be collaborating with Servy to help airports adapt their offer to best meet the needs of passengers, who will be looking for convenience and ways to stay socially distanced on their return to travel. Our service gives passengers more control over their food & beverage orders, allowing them to receive their favorite food wherever they may be in the airport.”

TPAtoGo is the most recent programme to go live. Currently taking orders for employees, it is set to launch to the public at the end of the month.

“In today’s travel climate, contactless ordering is tremendously important, and we are excited about the upcoming public launch of our TPA to Go program for travellers,” said TPA VP of Concessions and Commercial Parking Laurie Noyes.

“Our goal is to instill confidence in the airport experience and provide tools for our passengers to access food & beverage however they are most comfortable. We believe this new service will provide our guests a first-class contactless experience throughout the airport.”

About Servy

Servy is described as the enterprise self-service platform for hospitality. Founded in 2014 and launched in 2015 as an airport digital commerce app called Grab, Servy has since expanded the platform and grown outside of airports to provide self-service solutions to hospitality companies of all sizes and venues including airports, rail stations and sports arenas.

Servy provides technology which aims to enhance the hospitality experience, not replace it. The solutions it offers include Order@, which allows traditional dining service to be seamlessly integrated with contactless ordering and payment through guests’ own devices and without the need for an app.

Servy Marketplace provides venues with the option to create their own marketplace with ordering from multiple outlets available within one simple interface. Self-service kiosks give partners the ability to create self-order and self-checkout guest experiences that suit their specific needs.

With a presence in more than 60 airports across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific, the Grab app is now the largest omnichannel airport e-commerce platform.

For details on Servy, the Grab Airport Marketplace, and its suite of enterprise self-service solutions for hospitality, see www.servy.us.

About AtYourGate

AtYourGate is described as the leading in-airport food and retail mobile ordering and delivery service for travellers, flight crews, and airport employees in airports worldwide. Launched in 2018, AtYourGate makes airport shopping and dining easier, safer and more relaxed. See www.atyourgate.com

NOTE: This story will also be featured in our new Airport Customer Experience newsletter, published in association with Airport Dimensions. The newsletter will feature a diverse array of stories related to various aspects of the airport consumer experience, from lounges to health, safety & wellness; relationship management to airport services; landside connections to commerce to culture.To subscribe free of charge please email Cina@MoodieDavittReport.com headed ‘Airport Customer Experience’.

Feb 22, 2021

Philadelphia International Airport’s concessions program is piloting robotic food delivery to customers at the travel hub as a new addition to its contactless ordering platform OrderatPHL.com. 

Named Gita (pronounced “jee-ta,” meaning “short trip” in Italian), the robot is powered by digital service AtYourGate and “smart following technology” company Piaggio Fast Forward, which was founded in 2015 by Boston entity Piaggio Group. Piaggio Group is the Italian manufacturer and creator of the well-known Vesper scooter. 

Gita is the first product from Piaggio Fast Forward and is a following robot designed to carry 40 pounds for up to four hours, which the company equates to roughly 20 miles of walking, on a single charge. The tech entity specializes in pedestrian mobility intelligence and aims to create mobile tech solutions that mirror the way people move to ultimately help them complete day-to-day tasks. 

The robots at PHL pair with a human delivery person by way of visual sensors, allowing them to follow the person at a distance, said Megan O’Connell, marketing and customer service manager at MarketPlace PHL. Gita stops when the delivery person stops and turns when the delivery person turns. If the robot hits any type of road block, it immediately stops and pauses until it relocates its delivery person. 

Gita pairs to, follows and reacts to its user’s actions without GPS, and functions both indoors and outdoors. Using computer sensor visitation, the robot takes in information in pedestrian-dense environments to effectively adapt to its surroundings in real time, according to Piaggio Fast Forward. The company’s overall vision is to help cities move toward sustainable mobility, where transportation becomes more active and less car-focused. 

Eateries at PHL that are using the robotic delivery technology include Auntie Anne’s, Bud & Marilyn’s, Chickie’s and Pete’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, Geno’s Steaks and Smashburger.

The robot can navigate most anywhere in PHL beyond the TSA security checkpoints, O’Connell noted.

Gita offers a hands-free option for employees, vendors and travelers at airports during Covid-19 as businesses seek more contactless offerings, Piaggio Fast Forward CEO Greg Lynn said in a statement.  

The pilot program will run through April, at which point PHL “will analyze and determine next steps” for whether Gita sticks around, O’Connell said.

PHL isn’t investing additional capital in the pilot aside from what was already funneled into the travel hub’s contactless ordering program, for which a total cost is “difficult to summarize due to the variable number of participating businesses and volume of customers,” she added.

Original Article

#DontFlyHungry at TPA!

Order food for delivery exclusively through the TPA To Go site:

tpatogo.com

The gita robot pairs with a person and tracks their path and movement while avoiding obstacles. The gita follows people using vision from an array of integrated cameras and doesn’t use a map or GPS. It can carry up to 40 pounds of cargo and runs for nearly 4 hours on a full charge.

During this pilot program, AtYourGate plans to use gita to engage in “surprise and delight” occasions to promote the AtYourGate service along with the airport or terminal’s commercial program. The robot can also provide the AtYourGate team an extra set of “hands” to carry large orders and offers a unique opportunity to provide a safer, touchless delivery experience.

For more information or to inquire about having a gita robot at your airport contact partners@atyourgate.com.