The 2012 SITA Passenger Self-Service Survey has revealed that passengers want more self-service and mobile-based offerings to help improve the travel experience.
The annual survey – which included more than 2,500 passengers from over 70 countries – found that 70% of passengers now carry smartphones, which is fuelling demand for services such as self-boarding and flight information updates.
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 IT Trends 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 continued: “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.”
