JAPAN TODAY



 

For some passengers flying out of Haneda Airport later this month, the terminal is going to look a little different.

Specifically, if you’re in Terminal 2 and planning to look up at the big monitors above the pre-boarding security line to check your flight into, you’re going to have to look elsewhere.

All Nippon Airways has announced that it will be removing those monitors. Instead, if you want to confirm the status of your flight, what gate you’ll be boarding at, or anything else along those lines, ANA recommends doing it through their app, which you’ll need to download and install on your phone.

▼ ANA’s tweet announcing the change. Large monitor displays like the ones seen here are currently above the four security line entrances in Terminal 2, but will be removed.

 

The change follows similar moves by rail operators in recent months in the Tokyo area, where physical poster-style timetables have been removed from many station platforms, under the ostensible logic that people can just check the schedule on their phones instead. 

Air travel, though, comes with an additional set of inconveniences and challenges that Tokyo commuter train passengers don’t have to worry about. For starters, if you miss the train you wanted to take, there’s usually another one coming in five minutes that you can hop on instead with the same ticket, but that’s obviously not the case with airplanes.

Air travelers also usually have luggage they’re lugging around, making it much more of a hassle for them to pull out their phone, download the app, or fire it up if they’ve already got it installed, and navigate the menus than it is for a train commuter whose hands are free.

For those reasons and more, ANA’s abolishment of the large above-the-security line monitors isn’t proving too popular with Japanese Twitter users, especially since the monitors will be removed on Feb 9.

“Please keep using digital signage. It’s a pain to have to check the app.”
“I mean, I get the idea of ‘You can check by yourself via the app,’ but getting rid of signage at a major airport like this just has me wondering how strapped for cash ANA is.”
“Please don’t get rid of the monitors. There are times when travelers run out of battery charge for their phones, or have their hands full with their bags.”
“I think it’s best to keep the large monitors. Older people and travelers from overseas don’t have the ANA app on their phones.”
“It’s like ANA isn’t concerned about customer service.”
“What is the point of getting rid of the monitors?”
“Are you trying to encourage people to stare at their phones while walking [around a crowded airport]?”
 

▼ Some of the monitors being removed

 

ANA’s announcement doesn’t say why they’re getting rid of the security line monitors in Haneda’s Terminal 2, which is used for the airline’s domestic flights.

There really are only two possible explanations, though: a cost-cutting measure (no large monitors means no large monitor maintenance expenses) and a ploy to get more people to install the ANA app on their phones.

Perhaps predicting the negative reaction, ANA quickly sent out a follow-up tweet saying that the other digital signage and monitors in Terminal 2 will remain in place and operating.

The large ones at the security lines will soon be gone, though, just like the pata pata sign at one of the nearby train stations many people pass through on their way to Haneda.