Most US passengers plan carefully, love self-serve airport and airline IT
By Jerome Greer Chandler Sun Sep 13, 2015
When it comes to arranging and executing a trip, most US air travelers label themselves “careful planners,”and they love self-serve IT. So says the airport/airline IT firm SITA.
SITA says 58% of respondents to its latest Passenger IT Trends Survey cast themselves in the careful planner category. They’re perfectly happy to use IT to plan the journey, but carry printed documents too, just in case.
Some passengers style themselves as independent and hyper-connected, 18% to be precise. They treasure efficiency, especially in travel. Thirteen percent say they’re pampered travelers, folks willing to pay for extras that make a trip more enjoyable. Finally, 12% consider themselves open-minded adventurers, excited about what experiences the trip holds.
Drilling deeper, the survey shows 90% of passengers rated online check-in a positive experience. This compares to 82% who opted to queue up and check-in at the counter. Checking in via mobile device or airport kiosk scored especially high, rating 89% and 83% respectively.
Not surprisingly, passengers don’t much like being rushed. SITA says relaxing dwell time before boarding garnered 95% approval.
Security, of course, still lags when it comes to self-serve. A full 43% of US passengers have “negative emotions” at security; 43% at passport control. What’s interesting about this is that the global averages for security and passport control angst were higher: 36% and 25% respectively.
SITA sees “opportunities” in the security and passport control arenas. The IT firm notes, “Some US airports and airlines are already enjoying…automated passport control kiosks.” These kiosks employ sophisticated biometrics to help flyers make it through immigration and customs faster once they deplane.
As for basic blocking and tackling, the survey shows 29% of flyers book their flight on their smartphones. Within a year SITA projects that number at 38%.
SITA’s survey was based on input from 1,411 passengers traveling through 46 international airports across the United States.
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