Travellers continue to prioritise speed and convenience and are increasingly embracing biometrics and off-airport processes to deliver it, Iata reports in its 2023 Global Passenger Survey results.
“Passengers have made it clear: they want to spend less time booking and move through the airport faster. And they are increasingly willing to use biometric data to complete more pre-departure tasks off-airport to achieve this,” said Nick Careen, Iata Senior Vice President for Operations, Safety and Security.
Efficient planning and booking
Passengers want convenience when planning their travel, including departing from an airport close to home, having all booking options and services available on one platform and paying with their preferred payment method.
Some 71% of respondents said they prioritised choosing an airport within close proximity, overtaking the prioritisation of affordable ticket pricing (31%). Only 52% of these passengers prefer to book flight tickets directly with an airline and rather focus on having easy access to flight changes and ancillary products and services.
Convenient payment options
62% of passengers choose payment methods based on convenience; 73% opt to pay with a credit or debit card, 18% pay with digital wallets, and 18% pay with a direct bank transfer. However, of all the respondents, Africans favoured credit or debit payments the least, with only 57% preferring this method and 36% choosing to transact via a direct bank transfer.
Payment issues cited by respondents included the inability to use their preferred option or to pay in instalments; others cited tedious payment processes and concerns over security. Furthermore, 25% of potential sales during the customer journey could not be eventually completed because of payment issues.
Lagging visa processing
Complicated visa requirements were found to deter 36% of travellers who want a convenient digital online visa process (66%). Only 20% of the respondents said they would prefer to go to a consulate or embassy, and 14% to an airport to apply for a visa; 49% said they had been deterred by complex processing procedures, and 19% cited affordability concerns.
Moreover, 87% of the respondents reported being more willing to share their immigration information if it resulted in a faster and smoother experience, compared with the 83% reported in 2022. Despite this, 8% expressed experiencing privacy concerns regarding the sharing of this information.
Smooth airport processes
Passengers are assisting their chances of moving through airport security quicker by only carrying carry-on baggage. 74% stated that when travelling with only a carry-on bag, they anticipated going from the kerb to the boarding gate in 30 minutes or less, an increase from 54% in 2022.
Regarding which airport processes lagged passengers’ travel times the most and would be preferred in the form of off-airport processing, immigration came in the lead at 45%, check-in followed with 33%, and baggage check-in came in last with 19%. The survey results reveal that 91% of passengers would be interested in a programme for trusted travellers (background checks) to expedite security screening.
Passengers have said they want more flexibility and control in the baggage process; 67% would be interested in a home pick-up and delivery, and 77% said they would be likely to check in a bag if they could tag it and check it in before they got to the airport. 87% would be willing to check in a bag if they could track it. Additionally, interest in baggage tracking is growing, and 57% of travellers have used or want to use electronic bag tags, up by 7% since 2022.
As biometric security checking technology becomes more prevalent, it is becoming the process of choice among passengers. In the last year, 46% of passengers used biometrics at the airport, up by 12% since 2022. Of those who have used biometric identification during their travels, 46% reported an 85% satisfaction rate. While data protection remains a concern for half of the travellers, 40% would be more open to biometric solutions if they were confident that their personal information was secure – an increase from 33% in 2022.
Furthermore, 75% of passengers prefer using biometric data over traditional passports and boarding passes.
“Passengers want technology to work harder, so they spend less time ‘being processed’, standing in queues. And they are willing to use biometric data if it delivers this result. But we need co-operation across the value chain and with governments to make it happen with secure technology that is available today,” said Careen.
Iata’s One ID initiative and ‘Digitalisation of Admissibility’ standards are set to enable passengers to digitally capture all the necessary pre-travel authorisations from governments before their trips. However, Iata acknowledges that One ID has to move at the pace of government regulations, slowing its launch.
