Investment in airport technology for travellers is forecast to his $8.7bn by 2015-end, a climb from 5.82% of revenues in 2014 to 6.25% this year, according to SITA.
In addition, the data, drawn from a survey, also predicted 64% of airport CIOs expect further YoY rises in 2016, as advances in the Internet of Things transforms the traveller’s airport experience.
Nearly 73% of airports consider passenger processing a high priority for IT investment, up from 59% last year. In addition, this year, 84% of airports see passenger and airport security as either a primary or secondary priority for IT investment, up from 76% in last year’s survey. This highlights a growing determination by more airports to try and address a common pain point for passengers.
Matthys Serfontein, SITA VP of airport solutions, said: “Airports always have passengers as a high priority but this year we see a clear acknowledgement that technology can help improve the passenger experience. Airport CIOs are committing their rising budgets to introduce technologies such as beacons, mobile services and increased self-service, to make it easier for passengers as the world’s airports become increasingly busier.”
The annual Airport IT Trends Survey, co-sponsored by Airports Council International (ACI) and SITA, in association with Airline Business, is the most extensive study of IT trends within the global airport industry. The 2015 results came from respondents who collectively represent the views of more than 223 airports. They show the priority for improving the passenger experience as rising numbers put greater pressure on airport capacity and infrastructure.
In Numbers
81% of airports will invest in beacons and other sensors over the next three years,
By 2018, 80% of airports will use beacons to provide way-finding services
74% will use beacons to provide notifications to passengers.
By this time, more than 50% of airports will have sensors in use at various points of the journey including check-in, bag drop, security, dwell time and boarding.
91% of airports plan to provide a mobile app for navigating the airport.
By 2018, more than 60% of airports will have implemented mobile access to irregular operational (IROPS) information to their employees.
83% of airports plan to update real-time notifications about day-of-travel information such as local traffic or queue times in the terminal, via mobile apps
In 2015, around 40% of people turned up at the airport already checked-in
Today, self-service check-in kiosks are almost universally available with nine out of ten airports having them in place, up from 75% in 2014.
Today 42% of airports have kiosks that can print bag tags to help passengers tag their own luggage before leaving them at drop-off points, which can be much faster for the passenger than using the airport counter.
Today, either assisted or unassisted, bag drop points are available at around half of airports globally.
A-CDM, where the airport is connected into regional air traffic management, airline and other systems, is also expected to be rolled out by 34% of airports over the next three years
To date only 14% of airports have adopted it.
