Airlines Look to Beacons to Improve Their Internet of Things Infrastructure
Skift Take
As the use of beacons to connect with customers becomes commonplace in other areas of life, such as retail, aviation will have an easier time making passengers comfortable with these exchanges. The trick is data exchange with airports, and between airlines. The commercial and strategic value of the Big Data airlines gather about us at various stages of the journey makes them loathe to share too much.
Aviation technology firm SITA reports in its latest Airline IT Trends Survey that 44% of airlines will leverage beacon technology to improve their services and connections with customers by 2018.
That represents a near five-fold increase over the ∼9% of airlines actively working with beacons to improve their passenger experience today.
Most airlines currently use beacons in the check-in area, in transit zones and in certain areas of the airport where passengers gather. The most common use of beacon connections by airlines is to transmit flight and gate updates to customers through the airline’s app.
Other uses of beacon connections, less common today, will increase over the next three years, SITA projects. These include enhancements to way finding, information for baggage collection
