‘Digital travellers’ could save airlines $600m

The world’s 3.2 billion mobile phones could be transformed into “indispensable” air travel tools within five years, new research shows.

If used as passenger tracking devices, mobile phones could save cash-strapped airlines up to $600 million on reducing flight delays.

Mobiles used as personal travel folders have the potential to hold boarding passes, baggage tracking information and payment data, making travel truly paperless and location independent.

There is also the future possibility that they can be used to store visa and biometric information, according to specialist IT provider SITA.

A report distributed at the company’s Air Transport IT Summit in Brussels, included research from Cambridge University which demonstrates that technology such as location sensing via mobile devices could save airlines up to $600 million by tracking passengers, sending messages and moving them to airport departure gates more efficiently; improving turnaround times and reducing delays.

At current growth rates, there will be five billion mobile customers by 2011 and functionality on mobile devices will be increasingly sophisticated, the study shows.

For the air transport industry this opens the door to a new way of doing business as mobile phones are currently used by 90% of airline passengers.

SITA chief technology officer  Jim Peters said: “These ‘digital travellers’, will have on-demand access to a range of mobile-enabled services such as real time flight updates; self-service booking, check-in and boarding; and mobile payments.

“Some of these services are already available to passengers, for example in Norway, Japan and Germany paperless travel is a reality on some routes. But what our research shows is that these mobile services will be available to all travellers worldwide over the next five years.

“In fact, by the end of 2010, 67% of airlines plan to offer mobile check-in. By then 82% of airlines also plan to offer notification services on mobiles. “

The report also highlights other areas where the air transport industry can gain from adopting these technologies.

Using mobiles as tracking devices, airports can not only move passengers more efficiently but also market revenue-earning services.

During a trial at Manchester airport, redemption of vouchers sent to passengers’ mobile phones resulted in 45% higher spending than among other shoppers.

by Phil Davies