Airport managers tend to view airport efficiency through the lens of their own experience based on measurements of travelers’ interactions with the ai Show moreAirport managers tend to view airport efficiency through the lens of their own experience based on measurements of travelers’ interactions with the airline after the traveler has entered the airport process. They ignore the times when the traveler is not empirically measurable, for example, the period between arrival at the airport and checks-in with the airline, and therefore miss important insight into how travelers cope with uncertainty and anxiety of the airport experience. In this paper, the author, an Airline Executive, suggests that ethnographic studies based on the techniques of rich observation, note-taking, coding, and inductive analysis will be a useful complement to airline/airport measures because ethnography can focus on travelers’ behaviors from the travelers’ point-of-view. Airport studies based on ethnographic studies should contain richer, more behaviorally complex and more customer-centric insights, leading to better, comprehensive problem identification and process redesign. Doctorate of Management Programs Show less