With tech comes ease - at least that’s how travelers are seeing it.
Travelers are using technology to optimize their trips, according to SITA's latest “Passenger IT Insights 2023,” based primarily on an online survey of nearly 6,500 respondents from 27 countries across the Americas, Asia, Europe, Middle East and Africa.
The report marks a continued rise in the use of technology that SITA noted in its report last year.
David Lavorel, SITA CEO, said that when considering whether to book a flight, experience at the airport is an increasingly important factor, along with cost and availability of destinations. And passengers are looking to technology to facilitate that experience.
“Passengers are pointing to a clear way forward for the industry: now more than ever they recognize smart technologies as key to streamlining travel while reducing its environmental impacts, both for air travel alone and for the broader intermodal ecosystem,” Lavorel said.
The survey also found an increased preference for mobile apps over web for bookings. In 2019, 77% of respondents said they use the web and 8% use mobile, while in 2023 those figures are 70% and 22%, respectively.
“The use of mobile devices has grown steadily over the years, and travelers rely more on mobile apps for booking and connectivity during dwell time and on board,” Lavorel said.
“We see that passengers’ behavior has changed for biometric identity verification being more accepted, especially for boarding, security and identity verification.”
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When asked about comfort levels with biometric identification throughout the journey, respondents this year gave a score of 7.36 out of 10, up from 7.26 in 2022.
The 2023 report found that travelers are also using technology to address “pain points” during their time at the airport, to support sustainability measures for air transport and to streamline intermodal travel.
Regarding sustainability, SITA found that respondents are increasingly interested in technology to support sustainability, such as flight path optimization to reduce fuel usage, with about two-thirds saying they value these types of solutions for airlines and airports, up from about half in 2022.
The report also tracked usage of different kinds of technology during bag tagging, bag dropping, identity control, dwell time, boarding, on board, at border control and during bag collection.
While figures vary for each stage, the report says one point is clear, there is an “appetite for the use of mobile technologies throughout the passenger journey.”