Simplification and convenience are travelers’ top concerns in the post-COVID crisis period, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA)’s 2022 Global Passenger Survey (GPS) released last night (November 1).
“Travel during COVID-19 was complex, cumbersome and time consuming due to government-imposed travel requirements,” says Nick Careen, IATA’s Senior Vice President for Operations, Safety and Security.
“Post-pandemic, passengers want improved convenience throughout their trip. Digitalization and use of biometrics to speed up the travel journey is the key,” he maintained.
Passengers want convenience when they plan their travel and when choosing where to depart from, the GPS revealed after collating over 10,000 responses from 222 countries.
Their preference is to fly from an airport close to home, have all booking options and services available in one single place, pay with their preferred payment method and easily offset their carbon emissions.
In fact, proximity to the airport was the passengers’ main priority when choosing where to fly from (75 percent). This was more important than ticket price (39 percent).
Travelers were satisfied being able to pay with their preferred payment method which was available for 82 percent of travelers.
Having access to planning and booking information in one single place was identified as being top priority.
Some 18 percent of passengers said that they offset their carbon emissions, the main reason given by those that did not was not being aware of the option (36 percent).
“Today’s travelers expect the same online experience as they get from major retailers like Amazon,” observed Muhammad Albakri, IATA Senior Vice President Financial Settlement and Distribution Services.
“Airline retailing is driving the response to these needs. It enables airlines to present their full offer to travelers. And that puts the passenger in control of their travel experience with the ability to choose the travel options that they want with convenient payment options,” he explained.
With regards to travel facilitation,
most travelers are willing to share their immigration information for more convenient processing.
A total of 37 percent of travelers admitted they have been discouraged from traveling to a particular destination because of the immigration requirements.
Process complexity was highlighted as the main deterrent by 65 percent of travelers, 12 percent cited costs and 8 percent cited time.
Where visas are required, 66 percent of travelers want to obtain a visa online prior to travel, 20 percent prefer to go to the consulate or embassy and 14 percent at the airport.
The bulk, 83 percent of travelers said they would share their immigration information to speed up the airport arrival process. While this is high, it is slightly down from the 88 percent recorded in 2021.
“Travelers have told us that barriers to travel remain,” Careen pointed out.
Countries with complex visa procedures are losing the economic benefits that these travelers bring. Where countries have removed visa requirements, tourism and travel economies have thrived.
And for countries requiring certain categories of travelers to get visas, taking advantage of traveler willingness to use online processes and share information in advance would be a win-win solution, he noted.
As for airport processes, passengers are willing to take advantage of technology and re-thought processes to improve the convenience of their airport experience and manage their baggage.
Passengers are willing to complete processing elements off-airport, with 44 percent identifying check-in as their top pick for off-airport processing.
Immigration procedures were the second most popular “top-pick” at 32, followed by baggage.
And 93 percent of passengers are interested in a special program for trusted travelers (background checks) to expedite security screening.
Also, passengers are interested in more options for baggage handling, with 67 percent interested in home pick-up and delivery and 73 percent in remote check-in options.
Most, 80 percent of passengers, stated they are more likely to check a bag if they could monitor it throughout the journey while 50 percent would be interested in using an electronic bag tag.
Interestingly, passengers see value in biometric identification, with 75 percent wanting to use biometric data instead of passports and boarding passes.
Over a third have already experienced using biometric identification in their travels, with an 88 percent satisfaction rate.
But data protection remains a concern for about half of travelers.
“Passengers clearly see technology as key to improving the convenience of airport processes,” Careen stressed.
“They want to arrive at the airport ready-to-fly, get through the airport at both ends of their journey more quickly using biometrics and know where their baggage is at all times.”
“The technology exists to support this ideal experience. But we need cooperation across the value chain and with governments to make it happen,” he noted.
“And we need to continuously reassure passengers that the data needed to support such an experience will be safely kept.”
The industry is ready to power airport processes with biometrics through IATA’s One ID initiative.
COVID-19 has helped governments understand the potential for passengers to share their travel information and the power of biometric processes to improve security and facilitations processes.
The proliferation of e-gates at airports is proving the efficiencies that can be gained.
The priority now is to support the OneID standards with regulation to allow its use to create a seamless experience across all parts of the passenger journey.
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