How’s this for exponential growth? The number of smartphones passengers pack has doubled over the last years, according to the international aviation communications firm SITA. The news comes from the company’s 2011 SITA – Air Transport World Passenger Self-Service Survey.
Here’s how fast penetration has progressed. Last year’s survey showed 28 percent of fliers were carrying smartphones. The number this year is 54 percent. Among first and business class passengers and fliers who make more than 10 roundtrips per year penetration was 74 percent – almost three-quarters. Seventy-five percent of those responding to the survey at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International had a smartphone
What would these folks do with the devices? Seventy-three percent want to employ them to pull up mobile boarding passes. Seventeen percent have already been there and done that. Frankfurt International generated the most mobile boarding pass usage: 25 percent. A recent trip by this Cheapflights reporter through Bush Houston Intercontinental’s Terminal C on a busy Friday afternoon anecdotally confirms the finding: several travelers were using their handhelds as virtual boarding passes
A significant slice of smartphone devotees check in via their device, 31 percent to be precise.
The import of all this? There’s a new breed of untethered passenger out there, people “who [are] not only able to manage his or her journey independently, but also expects personal and timely communication from airlines, airports and other providers of travel-related services,” says SITA CEO Francesco Violante.
Violante says smartphones are also speeding things up at passenger queues. SITA’s chief contends “Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity can be used to improve passenger flow, alleviating areas of passenger concern such as queues at border control and security.”
To that end, 23 percent of departing passengers say they keep Bluetooth on when they pass through the airport.
Here’s what these untethered techies don’t want their smartphones to do: sell them stuff. SITA says, “Eighty percent of respondents are not interested in receiving information on shopping deals over mobile devices.”
If you have a smartphone, tell us how you put it through its paces when you travel.
Story by Jerry Chandler
(Image: Cheon Fong Liew)
