Close to 70% of air passengers now carry smartphones, which is fuelling the demand for services such as self-boarding and flight information updates on their mobiles, says a survey.
The 'Air transport world passenger self-service survey', released today by SITA, an over $1.5-billion company that provides air transport communications and IT solutions, said that airline passengers wanted more control of their journey and were looking for more self-service and mobile-based offerings to reduce stress during travel.
Self-service continues to be increasingly popular with passengers, and 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, the survey reported.
“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,” Francesco Violante, chief executive of SITA, said in a release.
These key findings are from the seventh annual SITA-Air Transport World (ATW) passenger self-service survey, carried out with a sample of the 280 million passengers who pass through six of the world’s leading airport hubs –– Abu Dhabi International, Beijing Capital International, Frankfurt International, Hartsfield-Jackson (Atlanta), Chhatrapati Shivaji International (Mumbai) and Guarulhos International (Sao Paulo).
This year, the survey said, websites held the position as the most-frequently used platform for check-in, with 79% using them regularly or occasionally. Kiosk usage also increased further, with 77% of passengers using them for check-in, reinforcing the fact that passengers want multi-channel self-service, it said.
The survey also confirmed another trend showing that the majority (62%) of travelers are active on social media, which is a higher penetration rate than recorded for the general population.
The findings also suggest, perhaps unsurprisingly, that social media usage among travelers differs significantly by age, with 80% of younger travelers (aged 18-24) active on social media, compared to 39% of the over-55s.
“Although passengers expressed interest in using social media for travel-related activities, it is generally lower than for other channels such as mobile. Only 65% of passengers said they would use flight status updates if offered via social media, while 89% of passengers will use them when offered on mobiles,” the survey said.