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Survey shows growth of online check-in
A survey of 100 airlines has found over half now offer online check-in and 89% expect to offer it within the next two years
The 9th annual Business IT Survey, co-sponsored by Airline Business and SITA, found that 21% of passengers use online check-in and, by the end of next year, this is expected to increase to 35%.
In addition, 37% of the traveling public is expected to use check-in kiosks in 2007 with these numbers expected to reach 49% in 2008.
SITA chairman Paul Coby said: “Airlines are increasingly using web check-in because they want to make travel easier for their passengers.”
The survey shows that 60% of airlines have already completed their IP migration and predicts that by the end of this year, 80% of airline systems and 83% of airline sites will be IP-enabled.
Almost half of the airlines (48%) already offer passenger notification services and 91% expect to offer within one to two years.
By then, 52% of airlines are planning to offer self-boarding and 76% plan to implement mobile phone check-in.
E-tickets are widely in use, and by the end of 2008, 86% of all tickets issued will be e-tickets.
Bar-coded boarding passes, which allow self-service and are widely used for web check-in, are also being introduced by the airlines.
The survey shows that 46% of airlines have already started eliminating the magnetic stripe boarding passes. By the end of 2008, this figure is expected to rise to 88%.
Even though 54% of respondents planning to spend more on technology in 2007 than in 2006, the percentage of revenues spent on IT by the industry continues to fall and is now at 2.1% dropping steadily from 2.5% in 2003.
Coby explained: “It’s not surprising to find airline IT spending very much focused on projects with proven payback and/or cost savings.”
By Bev Fearis
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Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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