By Jim Collins, Chief Executive Officer, Fruition
Three hours before a traveler’s flight, they have three questions: how long is the security line, where is the shuttle right now, and is anything open near the gate? Most airport websites don’t provide this information. They do, however, offer a lovely page about the airport’s history. Airport websites need search capabilities that provide the information passengers want at their fingertips, on a phone, when they are headed to the airport.
What Passengers Ask
Search logs from major North American airport websites tell a consistent story. The most common queries are not campaign taglines or route maps. They are parking rates, security wait times, lost and found, pet relief areas, ground transportation, and which terminal an airline uses. Travelers treat the search box like an information desk, and they expect it to answer the way a person would: with what is true right now.
The Answers are Already Inside the Building
Here is what’s uncomfortable. Wait times, parking counts, flight status, and shuttle locations already exist in operations, information technology, and vendor systems. The website usually lives with marketing and communications. Nobody owns the seam between the two, so live data stays locked away while the passenger refreshes a static page. That is a data silo problem, not a technology problem. Accuracy fears make it worse because a stale “10-minute wait” damages trust more than no answer at all. Try it yourself: open your phone and search your airport’s website for “security wait time.”
What AI-Enhanced Search Changes
AI-Enhanced Search closes that gap. Instead of matching keywords to pages, semantic search understands what a traveler means, then assembles the answer from live operational feeds: flight status, security wait times, parking counts, and amenity hours. The answer appears in the search bar itself, rather than requiring a deep search within the site. Just as important, the technology drops into the website that an airport already runs, alongside the existing content management system, WordPress included, with no replatforming. Airports adopting AI-Enhanced Search follow four principles:
- One source of truth: the same live feed powers the website, the mobile experience, and on-premise screens, so channels never disagree.
- Freshness beats polish: a plain, up-to-date answer earns more trust than a beautiful page that is stale.
- Staff stays in control: Airport Communications’ teams update answers and tune results without opening a developer ticket.
- Measure it like a service channel: track deflected calls and information desk visits, not page views alone.
AI-Enhanced Search at Denver International Airport (DEN)
DEN, the third-busiest airport in North America, lived this problem. Travelers struggled to find restaurants, flight status, parking, and security waits through a costly third-party search tool that failed them when it mattered most. DEN replaced it with FlyFruition AI-Enhanced Search, integrated into the airport’s existing WordPress website. Search “burger,” and results show restaurants with gate locations and live open status. Search for an airline, and live arrivals and departures appear beside current security wait times. DEN’s team boosts priority pages and tunes rankings through a self-service console; no developer required. The move took search from failure to relevant, actionable answers, and the website earned an Airports Council International award in 2024. Type a question into flydenver.com and watch what comes back.
The 10-Question Audit
Pull yesterday’s top 10 passenger questions from your airport’s website search logs, information desk, and phone line. Count how many questions the website answered with live data. That number, more than any redesign plan, is your digital roadmap for the year ahead.
Author BIO
Jim Collins is the CEO of Fruition, a woman-owned digital agency founded 
in 2003 and focused on the airport industry. Fruition holds the largest market share in the US airport website and operations platforms. Its FlyFruition platform (flyfruition.com) powers the digital experience for more passengers than any other vendor in its category. Fruition is SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, and FedRAMP Ready certified.
DISCLAIMER
This article was provided by a third party and, as such, the views expressed therein and/or presented are their own and may not represent or reflect the views of Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA), its management, Board, or members. Readers should not act on the basis of any information contained in the blog without referring to applicable laws and regulations and/or without appropriate professional advice.