Outcomes
The engagement crystallised a new digital ambition — “Airport 3.0” — as a realistic, structured, and stretching target for the organisation. A comprehensive roadmap was built, tying together existing initiatives and the new capabilities required to realise the vision. Component costs and indicative benefits were developed to underpin a more robust investment case, giving the organisation the financial narrative needed to secure broader buy-in. A new Chief Information Officer was brought on board to champion the digital agenda — a direct outcome of the clarity the engagement had created around what the role needed to deliver.
Background
Digital activity at the airport had evolved organically rather than strategically — a collection of initiatives that had grown up around areas of existing success, most notably car parking, without a coherent vision to connect or direct them. The prevailing belief was that digital transformation was fundamentally about building a “My Airport” app — a framing that significantly underestimated both the opportunity and the complexity of what genuine digital leadership in the sector would require.
The strategy had not been developed from a customer service design perspective, leaving it disconnected from the passenger experience it was ultimately meant to shape. Digital was largely sponsored by the Commercial function and had not achieved meaningful buy-in across the senior leadership group — limiting both ambition and resource. In-house digital capability was limited, business cases for digital investment were underdeveloped, and there was little understanding across the IT community of what a more ambitious digital agenda would actually demand.
Curzon Approach
Curzon’s role was to challenge, provoke, and reframe — helping the organisation see beyond its current assumptions about what digital could and should mean for an airport of its scale and ambition. A series of structured workshops challenged prevailing thinking and opened up new lines of possibility, while benchmarking against best practice inside and outside the aviation sector gave the client both inspiration and evidence for a more stretching vision.
Gap analysis identified the capabilities the organisation would need to develop to realise a genuinely transformative digital agenda — providing an honest assessment of the distance between current state and future ambition. Financial implications of the revised vision were assessed, translating strategic aspiration into the commercial language needed to build a credible investment case and secure board-level commitment.
The output was not just a strategy document — it was a shared understanding of the challenge, a structured roadmap with real sequencing, and the organisational momentum to act. The appointment of a new CIO to champion the agenda was a tangible signal that the engagement had moved the organisation from ambiguity to conviction.
