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AFTER YESTERDAY’S ANNOUNCEMENT that electronic devices are to be allowed during take-offs and landings, a new survey has revealed that the uptake of smartphones to book travel is still extremely low.
The 2013 SITA/Air Transport World Passenger IT Trends Survey shows that just five per cent of people use phones to check in .
The survey conducted at six leading airports around the world paints a picture of tech-savvy passengers who are equipped to use the latest mobile travel services but are cautious about doing so.
The survey showed that 76 per cent of travellers have smartphones, compared with 40 per cent across the general population.
Despite the increase in availability in recent years, actual rates of usage of services such as check-in and booking, remain below 5 per cent.
The majority of passengers – 78 per cent – cite usability concerns and limitations of the device as a possible reason for not using mobile for travel.
69 per cent of respondents booked their travel through a website and 20% used a kiosk for check-in on the day of travel.
Passengers have said that information services are what they want most on their mobiles – with 63 per cent saying they would definitely use their mobile for flight search and 58 per cent for flight status.
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What happens if your batteries dead at the gate with your boarding card on it? you’d be an eejit for forgetting to charge it, but the world is full of eejits.
Sensible airlines like Air France let you reprint from the terminals.
If you want a backup you could do a screenshot of the boarding code and print that off.
I check-in on my phone whenever I can, but a lot of the time it’s not possible. Having boarding card on your phone is one less thing to carry.
Booking flights require a lot of information to be entered, passport details of every passenger etc. – not surprising people prefer keyboard and mouse. Also, I’ve seen flights costing more through airline phone apps compared to their website.
Would love if you could use your phone as a boarding pass, just scan from phone, save trying to find an internet shop at 2 in the morning when your ink runs out. not everyone has a printer either.
You can! With Aer Lingus anyway.
And Lufthansa.
@Bionic Rats.
No one has a working printer either!
I do it all the time, many airlines permit it.
I use my passport to check in with Aerlingus which I would have on me when traveling.
I wouldn’t trust my phone not to be flat on way home.
They could block skype or viber etc. to stop loudmouths annoying people.
That’s good to hear, maybe swine air can follow suit for cheapskates like me :-)
Yeah plenty allows this now. I’ve used it with BA and some of the US Airlines…. very handy…
The first couple of times that I saw that it was available, I did have a backup printed boarding pass, just in case, but it worked every time so far, so I don’t bother with that anymore if the mobile device boarding card is available…
Good to see they are lifting the pointless ban on electronic devices during takeoff. If it was really a risk they should have been confiscating these devices.
Vague bullshit requirement
Shame we can’t read the infographic!
Mobile Check in and boarding passes work great with virgin Australia and the passbook app for storage.
This is because if a staff member does it for you then you can not be held liable for mistakes incurring fees taxes and charges on top of the already crippling taxes charges and fees and don’t forget handling fees that are not processed but we pay individually for and baggage! See they know when you get to the airport, if you have a mistake and you want to fly then they got you by the balls!
I don’t know why we need boarding passes anyway. You could just give your passport number when you book and scan that. It’s more secure too, since the staff would only have to check your photo against your face, without having to check the name against the boarding pass.
A boarding pass has a lot of information on it that is useful… gate number, terminal, departure time etc…. can’t get that from your passport.
Is this rule permitting the use of electronics for take off and landing being adopted in Europe or is this an FAA approval for American aircraft only?
Mobiles can be stolen, network go down think I’ll stick to printing out. Although I don’t understand why if you have a reference number and recognised photo if that isn’t enough. Also why dont Ryanair accept driving licences.
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