Passengers embrace the ‘do-it-yourself’ approach
November 2010
According to a recent survey, 70% of flyers like to do things on their own. Now that there are fees for checking in at the airport, booking a flight over the phone, have the airlines finally gotten what they wanted? With self-boarding becoming more prominent and more do-it-yourself services sure to follow, the self-serve airline world is getting bigger – and lonelier.
If you like the face-to-face interaction with airline employees, you're opportunities are fading. As airlines seek to cut costs, they are aggressively promoting the use of their online booking tools, self-service kiosks and are now exploiting mobile technology to enable travelers to do just about everything but fly the plane.
SITA, the specialists in air transportation communications and IT solutions, conducted a survey along with Air Transport World to measure the attitudes and habits of a representative sample of the over 280 million passengers using the following airports:
- Hartsfield-Jackson, Atlanta
- Mumbai International
- Moscow Domodedovo
- Sao Paulo Guarulhos, Brazil
- OR Tambo Airport, Johannesburg
- Beijing International Airport
- Frankfurt International Airport, Germany
The survey revealed that 74% of passengers interviewed booked their flights online. Users of Hartsfield-Jackson (ATL) and Beijing booked the most online. According to SITA, 61% of passengers use online check-in and 71% check in using a kiosk. The trend is now moving toward the use of mobile devices to check in, get through security and even board a flight. SITA states that 3% had used mobile phones to check in on the day of the survey but the percentage of passengers surveyed who had used their devices to check in prior to that day stood at 23%. 58% expressed future interest in using mobile devices for check-in, according to SITA.
Interestingly, the survey revealed that over half of those questioned who had used a traditional check-in desk did so because they had to check luggage. 70% preferred to tag their own bags if they could and 75% would like to see an off-airport bag drop even though only a third would be willing to pay for the service, according to SITA.
In a press release SITA states that 2,490 passengers were interviewed at departure gates before traveling on 106 airlines earlier this year. The main nationalities interviewed were American, 17%; Indian, 12%; Chinese, 12%; Brazilian, 11%; German, 8%; others, 23%.
It’s great to know that spending less time checking in at the airport will of course give you more time to relax and unwind in one of our airport VIP lounges.
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