3 Stats That Forecast the Rapid Growth of In-Flight Connectivity

SITA’s Airline IT Trends Survey reveals that 66% of airlines will offer passengers more wireless choices in-flight by 2018, compared to only 28% today.

We know that the in-flight connectivity market is growing by leaps and bounds, with connectivity suppliers competing to offer greater bandwidth, better connections and more speed. At the same time, in-flight entertainment suppliers are offering better options for both embedded seat-back and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) entertainment.

In fact, there is an overlap between those two technologies, with suppliers on both sides of the product range offering various solutions and enticing airlines to adopt connections with improved operations benefits.

All this activity results in the dramatic improvements which SITA predicts for 2018.

SITA indicates that inflight wireless apps, which provide both entertainment content and destination services, such as bookings for onward travel from the airport, will increase from 6% to 44% by 2018.

In-flight duty free shopping, also supported by airline in-flight wireless apps, will increase from 11% to 47% over the same period.

Source: SITA Airline IT Trends Report/SITA