Self-service proves top priority for airports

More than half of all air passengers would like to see improvements at the airport and have more control over their journey.

According to a new report from SITA, these are the sentiments of flying travellers, despite 78% saying they are happy with their overall experience.

So to meet these expectations, technological innovations sit atop the list of priorities for airports, with nearly 60% of IT investment by airports now targeted at improving the passenger experience.

Much of this investment is targeted at self-service applications, because passengers want to have greater control over their journey.

The biggest complaints that passengers have about their airport experience are queues at check-in, border control, problems transferring to connecting flights, and baggage collection.

SITA has devised a paper that points out key areas that need attention at the airport, starting with a general outlook on expansion and infrastructure, looking at least 10, if not 20 years into the future.

But airports also have to make specific short-term investment decisions to cope with existing passenger growth, which is predicted to hit 3.91 billion worldwide by 2017.

SITA pins three primary places to channel energy into:

Creating the ideal airport experience
Better anticipate and manage disruption
Improving operations through better collaboration

The way to address the first priority is to personalise the airport experience for travellers, with SITA recording that 97% of all jetsetters travel with a phone, tablet or laptop.

Tech solutions such as self-service check-in and bag drop have already proved successful, with the recent self-serve kiosks reducing queue times by 36%.

Automated bag drop systems, such as SITA’s Self BagDrop, can process 60 passengers per hour compared to 24 at a standard or agent-assisted bag drop counter.

Airports and airlines are also trialling a number of different ways to make a more inclusive self-service process, which means enabling the use of home printed baggage tags and using NFC-enabled smart fixed baggage tags that can be updated with the passenger’s flight and baggage information once they check in.

Recent improvements in biometric matching technology and the greater use of ePassports are also convincing many border agencies to deploy automated systems to help speed up the process for passengers.

According to the SITA 2014 Airport IT Trends Survey, around 30% of airports already provide real-time information to passengers via mobile should a disruption happen or if there is a significant queue building up at security gates. By 2017, this will increase to 82% of airports.

The main passenger complaint about disruption is the lack of knowledge about what has caused it and how long it will take to be resolved, making real-time updates an imperative tactic for better travelling experiences.

SITA tools such as Airport Business Intelligence and Airport Management Solution analyse airport operations to identify the cause of disruptions and take proactive action to manage or prevent them.

They can help track, measure, predict and optimise the flow of passengers and limit congestion.

The final passenger satisfaction goal is improving collaboration between stakeholders, which is vital to help stakeholders better utilise limited resources such as airspace and gates, which can prevent delays from happening.

Integrated systems allow airports to provide information on wait times to passengers, which can minimise stress caused by delays or congestion.

For example, SITA pitches the idea of expected queuing times being integrated with a way-finding mobile app to provide passengers with an alert when they need to leave their location to get to their gate on time.

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