Alexandre de Juniac, IATA's Director General and CEO, said passengers are willing to share more personal information if it removes hassle from their travel experience. “But it’s clear that concerns over data privacy remain. While the majority of passengers want to use biometric identification instead of a paper passport, 53 percent of those that did not, said they were concerned about the security of their data. Passengers need to be confident that their data is safe.”
More than half of the passengers said that they would be more likely to check their bag if they were able to track it throughout the journey. And 46 percent said they want to be able to track their bag and have it delivered directly to an off-airport location, if that service were available.
Time is of the essence for passengers
The survey indicated that 80 percent of passengers want to wait no longer than three minutes to drop off a bag. This increased to 10 minutes for queuing at immigration/customs for 79 percent of travellers.
And only 2 percent would accept a waiting time longer than 20 minutes. Passengers (74 percent) also want to wait no longer than 10 minutes for baggage delivery. And almost none wants to wait longer than 20 minutes.
The survey also found that for nearly a third of passengers, speed was the main benefit of using automated immigration gates/kiosks. A similar number (72 percent) gave the overall experience of automated immigration processing a thumbs up.
Passengers want onboard Wi-Fi. Some 53 percent of surveyed passengers found Wi-Fi important to have. The importance is the highest in Africa (71 percent), Latin America (68 percent) and the Middle East (67 percent) and the lowest in Europe (44 percent) and North America (49 percent).
With availability of Wi-Fi connectivity continuing to have a direct impact on the overall travel experience, adopting the latest onboard Wi-Fi technology continues to be an effective way for airlines to distinguish their product offering.
Passengers once again identified airport security screening process and border control as two of their biggest pain points when travelling.
Having to remove personal items was identified as a pain point by the most travelers (60 percent), closely followed by the removal of laptops and large electronic devices (48 percent) and variations in screening processes at different airports (41 percent).
To improve the boarding experience, the top three suggestions from passengers are
More efficient queuing at the boarding gate (60 percent),
Not needing to get a bus to the aircraft (51 percent) and
More bin space for cabin luggage (46 percent).To improve the connection experience, the top three desires from travellers are not having to go through security at the transfer airport (60 percent), not having to pick up and reclaim their bag at the transfer airport (59 percent) and not having to pass immigration at the transfer airport (55 percent).
