More than half of air passengers will use their mobiles to check flight and baggage status by 2016, with all the major airlines offering these services, research from IT firm SITA has concluded.
SITA also found that 90% of the airports it approached were investing in ‘intelligent information’ to offer similar services. The report, Smart Thinking, was released at the Airlines in Transition Summit in Dublin.
SITA found that flight status updates were already a mainstream mobile service and that “the vast majority” of airlines and airports would offer this by the end of 2016. It adds: “By then, what today are niche services will also be well established. Bag status updates will be offered by 61 per cent of airlines; and 79 per cent of airports will provide status notifications, such as queues times through security and walking time to gate. More than three quarters will also be providing navigation/way-finding at the airport via mobile apps.”
SITA’s market insight director Nigel Pickford said: “Though the picture is not perfect now, change is coming. All airlines and 90 per cent of airports are planning to make business intelligence investments in the coming three years.
“Both face the issue though that while passengers are very keen to access information about their journey, they are also sensitive about privacy. The smart use of non-intrusive passenger information however will provide benefits to airlines and passengers.”