Survey confirms airline IT trends

Results published in the 12th annual SITA/Airline Business IT Trends Survey show that the airlines which carry the bulk of the world’s air traffic, are on course to sell the majority of airline tickets direct to passengers by 2013.

The record 129 airlines who responded to this year’s survey carry over one billion passengers and are currently selling 40.8 per cent of tickets directly to the public which breaks down as: over the internet, 25.8 per cent; through call centres, 10.7 per cent; and interlining, 4.3 per cent.

These 129 airlines intend to bring their level of direct sales up to 55.1 per cent by 2013. While sales through airline call centres and interlining will remain largely static, direct channel sales through websites are expected to jump to 37.9 per cent.

Francesco Violante, SITA CEO, said: “This year’s survey tells us there is a climate of increasing business confidence. Airlines are investing in IT to provide richer functionality to their online customers and creating additional channels to market in order to increase the level of direct sales now that online distribution is almost universal.”

In order to increase online sales, airlines are prioritizing the implementation of new functionality on their web sites in the following ways: online shopping tools (61 per cent have already implemented this); change/cancel/rebook (52 per cent); and frequent flyer redemption functionality (51 per cent).

This is in line with overall airline strategy to migrate passengers to self-service including a multi-channel check-in environment. The airlines stated ambition is to reduce the number of passengers processed via agent check-in from 50.7 to 28.9 per cent by 2013. Kiosk check-in is expected to remain static at just below 20 per cent while web check-in options will grow from 21.6 today to 35.5 per cent in 2013, and mobile check-in will advance from 28 today to 70 per cent by 2013.

Although the proportion of passengers using check-in kiosks remains static, the survey confirms the important role of kiosks in a multi-channel environment. 47 per cent of airlines plan to increase the number of kiosks they deploy as they gradually move towards the next step of adoption by adding new functionality for flight transfers and disruption management. The survey also found that 80 per cent of the largest airlines plan to use kiosks as sales points.

The next wave of implementation will be around booking portals for travel agencies which 41 per cent have already done and a further 43 per cent plan to do by 2013; while 44 per cent have already implemented booking portals for corporate customers and a further 38 per cent plan to do so by 2013. By comparison, just 21 per cent of survey respondents have integrated social networking capabilities while 45 per cent have no plans to do so.

In addition, 70 per cent of airlines have a strategy in place to use the passenger’s mobile phone as a further distribution channel to sell air tickets. Currently, 18 per cent of airlines sell tickets over mobile phones and the ambition is to reach 70 per cent by 2013. Some 85 per cent of the largest airlines responding to the survey plan to offer such services by 2013.

The mobile phone will become an essential tool for airline travel by 2013 with 86 per cent of airlines planning to offer flight notifications; 80 per cent, online check-in; 76 per cent, send electronic boarding passes to mobiles; and 68 per cent using the mobile phone to target passengers with travel offers.

Airlines are becoming increasingly adept at upselling, using fare families and marketing types; unbundling fares, by charging for services such as meals and baggage management; and selling non-air services such as hotels, car hire and insurance.

Most of this revenue generation takes place direct on line: 63 per cent, upsell; 41 per cent unbundle; and 51 per cent sell non-air services.

In 2013, 91 per cent of survey respondents will have implemented at least one of these ancillary revenue strategies via their own direct web channels.