When I’ve been at call to gate in Europe (MAD and IST) I recall that it was the way they used their monitors - and the info on those monitors - that made the system intuitive and easy to follow. (It's been years, mind you, and I never thought to take pictures!) From what's happening here this week, that may be lacking at YYC.
If I recall, it was something along the lines of :
- Before boarding: Message on screen would alternate between “Wait here” and “Gate available at xx:xx”
- Just prior: Message on screen would change to “Gate available in XX minutes”
- Call to gate: Message would switch to “Go to gate XX now”
Nice and clear. And, visually, people would understand the system when they see multiple flights displaying those status messages consistently.
And, just as important, the CTG screens that I’ve seen elsewhere were
not the typical flight info screens that we see at most airports. They need to look different so users understand that they're conveying different information.
The CTG screens that I've seen had a much smaller number of flights much more prominently displayed – which makes the info bigger and that much easier to see and digest. Six or eight flights on a screen, rather than 30.
The screens and their layout were sufficiently different that it was clear that they were actually providing instructions – not just the usual flight info. If they look like regular flight info screens, most people would never bother to read the 'comments' field for instructions. They'll just be doing a quick glance at it to see if it's on time, and then keep on walking by.
I haven’t seen photos of the monitor screens used for the D or E gates at YYC, but my hunch they’re nowhere near as clear and concise. (Otherwise, there wouldn't be this level of confusion and frustration.) And they probably look like regular ol' flight info screens, meaning people would never think that the screens are providing them with instructions to follow (and would just ignore what seems to be extraneous info).
But as simple as those other CTG monitor screens seemed, they’d need to be automated. And YYC undoubtedly has already sunk buckets of money and countless hours of vendors’ programming time on creating the
existing D and E screens … i.e. the ones that are confusing people and creating anger over the perceived faults of not having seats to wait in at the gates! Unfortunately that makes it tough to re-do them, and really tough to fix them quickly!
(YYC's current response to the complaints is, well, unfortunate. They're responding to every complaint about lack of gate seating by directing the person - after they've already left, naturally - to a page of CTG instructions on their website. That ain't gonna work in the long term. And really won't do much in the short term, either. People won't read instructions about how to 'use' an airport.)
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