Airline passengers’ stress buster? More control over journey options

Airline passengers want more control of their journey and are looking for more self-service and mobile-based offerings to reduce stress during travel according to the 2012 SITA/Air Transport World Passenger Self-Service Survey released today.

Some findings:
— 70% of passengers now carry smartphones, which is fueling the demand for services such as self-boarding and flight information updates on their mobiles.
— Self-service continues to be increasingly popular with passengers: almost two thirds used a self-service channel to check-in on the day of the survey, up from just over half last year.
— Close to 90% of passengers rated flight status updates on their mobiles and self-boarding as their top self-service technologies.
— Nearly everyone surveyed said they would welcome any queue-busting services and 89% voted self-boarding as their top technology.
— 68% picking automated bag drop as one of their top self-service offerings.
— This year, websites hold the position as the most frequently used platform for check-in with 79% using them regularly or occasionally. Kiosk usage also increased further, with 77% of passengers using them for check-in reinforcing the fact that passengers want multi-channel self-service.
— Only 65% of passengers said they would use flight status updates if offered via social media, while 89% of passengers will use them when offered on mobiles.