Last Thursday, as thunder pealed in the background, I turned the television on to the local NBC affiliate to see what was happening with the weather. As it turned out, our county was under a tornado warning, with high winds and heavy storms.
As the anchors talked, they said that they had checked the Charlottesville Albemarle Airport’s website, www.gocho.com, to check on the flight status of inbound flights and that flights had not been significantly delayed because of the storms (there were no tornadoes, fortunately).
The NBC 29 anchors were not the only ones checking www.gocho.com that night. Since we launched live on April 21, the website had not seen as much traffic as it did on the night of the tornado, and into the early morning hours.
Note the May 8 and May 9 traffic. The tornado warning lasted from about 10 - 11 PM on May 8, and hits to the website carried over into the next day.
The site that enabled the anchors at NBC 29 to see how the weather was affecting flights was an endeavor four months in the making. The old Charlottesville Albemarle Airport Authority website had a Flash introduction and a difficult to navigate website. The Director, Barbara Hutchinson, sought to embark on a strategy that made the Charlottesville airport Central Virginia’s airport of choice, and she wanted a website which contained all of the information that a traveler would want from an airport, with as much information as possible without clutter.
Thus, OpenSource Connections, with Birch Studio Graphics offering design and Flash support, came up with an airport-focused content management system that allowed the GoCHO team to communicate most effectively with their clients. The biggest issue that they sought to overcome was handling phone calls from the public to answer questions that they could also find on a well-designed website. By reducing the volume of phone traffic and channeling those questions to the website, the Airport Authority could focus on operating the airport and improving the experience of travelers.
Working with Ms. Hutchinson and her team, we were able to pinpoint the highest value information that travelers sought and to tailor and deliver a website that provided that information in an easy to find manner. Additionally, by implementing a content management system, we were able to facilitate the Authority’s communication of information to the public. The old site was in static HTML, and was difficult to update information, whereas the new website can be updated on the fly. JetBlast, the new GoCHO blog, is one example of ways in which the Airport Authority can now communicate much more rapidly with the general public, and receive feedback on what they have to say.
We have also tied in FAA flight information and travel cost information from Kayak to a front page tabbed browsing system so that users can find flight deals from the CHO airport, creating a one-stop destination for people who want to find out more about commercial travel at the airport.
The resulting site, we think, serves the public well. What do you think? Contact us and let us know!
