Airline Passengers Want More Control Of Journey, Says SITA Report

Manila Bulletin
October 23, 2012
By Edu Lopez

Airline passengers want more control of their journey and are looking for more self-service and mobile-based offerings to reduce stress during travel, according to the 2012 SITA-Air Transport World Passenger Self-Service Survey.

The survey revealed that 70 percent of passengers now carry smartphones, which is fueling the demand for services such as self-boarding and flight information updates on their mobiles.

Self-service continues to be increasingly popular with passengers: almost two thirds used a self-service channel to check-in on the day of the survey, up from just over half last year. Close to 90% of passengers rated flight status updates on their mobiles and self-boarding as their top self-service technologies.

Francesco Violante, CEO, SITA, said: “What passengers really want is to avoid delays and to be kept informed of what is happening. Nearly everyone surveyed said they would welcome any queue-busting services and 89% voted self-boarding as their top technology.

“It is very clear from our survey earlier this year that airports and airlines are working in the same direction, so we expect to see significant growth in technologies aimed at reducing waiting times.”

He noted that the number of passengers with smartphones has risen dramatically over the past year from 54% to 70%.

“We are already seeing the impact at airports with mobile check-in increasing by one third during this period and as many as 21% of passengers have now used a mobile boarding pass. We’re now at the tipping point of explosive growth in mobile services offered to passengers, which will give them more control over their journey and reduce stress.”

As passengers become used to the services currently on offer, they want more. For example, self-service check-in has been popular for some time, but checking in a bag has remained a barrier.  However, passengers are now showing a willingness to do it themselves, with 68% picking automated bag drop as one of their top self-service offerings.