"ISO awards back goal of winning return customers"

Friday, December 6, 2002

ISO awards back goal of winning return customers
By Glenda Korporaal
The South China Morning Post


Plaza Business Centre Management's three airport lounges at the
international airports in Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur are the only ones
in the world with ISO 9001:2000 certification, according to chief
executive Song Hoi-see. 

Most airport lounges are operated by airlines that regard the facilities
as cost centres, he says. 

Plaza's lounges, which are open to the general public for a fee (HK$250
for entry to either of the two at Chek Lap Kok), are focused on getting
return visits because they are aimed at making a profit. 

Mr Song pioneered the development of pay-in transit lounges in Asia. His
two lounges in Hong Kong airport (one just after immigration,
downstairs, and one in the west wing) have been in operation in Chek Lap
Kok since the airport opened.

He has opened one in Kuala Lumpur International Airport, and he recently
set up one in Singapore on the invitation of the airport authorities
there. 

"Airlines would have no commercial reason to spend the money to get the
ISO certification," Mr Song says. 

"To them it is a cost centre. To me it is a profit centre. I want to
make sure that every time you walk in you will come back again, that you
believe you get good value for money. My food is much better than in any
airline lounge."

Mr Song says his Hong Kong lounges provide travellers with facilities to
have a shower and take a rest, enjoy hot food (the menu, which includes
breakfast, lunch and dinner, changes every 10 days) and conduct business
using computer and Internet connections and secretarial services. 

Unlike business centres, the pay-in transit lounge business is booming. 

The two Hong Kong centres receive more than 600 visitors a day, and Mr
Song says he has been approached by at least one other airport authority
in the region to set up a similar lounge. 

He hopes the ISO certification will encourage airport authorities in
China to let him set up pay-in lounges in their airports, and he would
like to expand to airports in Japan and Bangkok. 

Mr Song says he had the idea for pay-in transit lounges when he left his
job as a banking executive and started his own business and had to fly
economy class. 

He would often find himself at a very crowded Kai Tak airport with time
to spare but no facilities where he could work. 

"I started the business because of my own bad experiences," he says. 

"We want to take care of the 80 per cent of people on the planes who do
not fly business or first class. 

"Even if only 2 per cent of these are prepared to pay, that is a good
enough. There is a huge market there."


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