Fly faster, fly cheaper - thanks to your cellphone

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 24 June 2008 10:02

Your IT - Home IT

The global airline IT co-operative, SITA, claims that  mobile phones could "be transformed into indispensable air travel tools within five years" saving the airline industry $US600m annually by reducing flight delays.

It claims that, as 'personal travel folders', mobile phones have the potential to hold boarding passes, baggage tracking information and payment data making travel truly paperless and location independent. Further down the track, SITA suggests  they could also be used to store visa and biometric information.

The findings are contained in a report distributed by SITA at its Air Transport IT Summit in Brussels. The report includes research from Cambridge University which, according to SITA, "demonstrates that technology such as location sensing via mobile devices could save airlines up to $US600 million by tracking passengers, sending messages and moving them to gates more efficiently; improving turnaround times and reducing delays."

SITA claims that mobile phones are currently used by 90 percent of airline passengers. CTO, 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 percent of airlines plan to offer mobile check-in. By then 82 percent of airlines also plan to offer notification services on mobiles."

While mobile phones may enable airlines to get passengers onto planes faster and more efficiently, the airports could employ the same technology to encourage them to linger longer in the duty free store: and spend any cost reductions that the airlines might pass on to them. According to SITA, "Using mobiles as tracking devices, airports can...also market revenue-earning services. During a trial at Manchester Airport in the UK, redemption of vouchers sent to passengers’ mobile phones resulted in 45 percent higher spending than among other shoppers."