Global airport IT survey shows spending on increase

Stan Beer
Thursday, 10 November 2005 11:00

IT Industry - Market

Results of the 2005 Airport IT Trends Survey, presented to industry leaders at the Airports Council International (ACI) world conference in Auckland, New Zealand, this week indicate investment in new information technologies is on a rapid upward curve.

Technologies such as such as check-in kiosks, wireless connectivity and biometrics, are all undergoing a spending boom, according to the Survey.

Respondents to the annual survey conducted by SITA, ACI and Airline Business, represent nearly 50% of revenue at the top 200 airports, based on the latest Airline Business magazine financial rankings.

·         Self-service check-in kiosks: at least 42% of airports globally have already deployed some form of self-service kiosk and the results show that, over the next two years, this figure will rise to 70%

·         WiFi access: over 90% of airports surveyed will offer public access to a WiFi network within the next two years

·         Managed network services: Within the next two years, 75% of airports will have an airport-wide communication network to support new passenger and airline services, such as VoIP

·         Biometric identification: 33% of airports plan to deploy a biometric identification system for check-in and boarding within the next four years, an eleven fold increase on today’s figure

The survey also presents a picture of an airport industry rapidly adapting to the challenges posed by significant traffic growth and the needs of the increasingly influential low cost carrier sector and airline alliance groups. 

John Jarrell, SITA senior vice president, airport and desktop services, said, “The survey results show that airport IT investment levels have climbed to 4.6% of revenues, up from 4.1% last year.  With passenger numbers continuing to rise, leading to increased airport revenues, the trend for increasing IT budgets in the future looks positive. We estimate that airport IT spend in 2005 is around the US$2.5 billion level.”

“Given that passenger traffic is forecast to almost double by 2020 to 7.4 billion, it is not surprising that airports are looking for IT solutions to play a bigger part in their operations. As the industry becomes increasingly competitive, we are seeing airports across the world using IT to attract both airlines and their passengers by providing efficient and safe airports.”