Airport IT investment rockets towards $6 billion with focus on passenger experience

Airport IT investment is set to reach $6 billion in 2013, according to the latest data from SITA. The survey outlines large-scale growth as airports drill down into an understanding of the passenger experience and what investments are needed to both keep pace with, and out-innovate, what's going on outside the airport arena. The data comes from the tenth annual Airport IT Trends survey, produced with Airports Council International (ACI) and Airline Business. The survey shows that airports unfazed by economic uncertainty as they increase investments in their technology infrastructure. The survey found that 90% of airports plan to maintain or increase their IT spend in 2014. This continues the net-positive three year airport IT investment trend that had a compound annual growth rate of 12%, which outpaced the 2.83% in compound growth in revenue during the same period. Of most import is passenger processing technology, followed closely by tech that improves the passenger service and information flow. In the survey release, SITA CEO Francesco Violante says: “Airports continue to invest in information technology to improve their operations and services. Our survey this year clearly shows that passengers are at the heart of this investment. As passenger traffic grows and airports aim to improve the passenger experience, technology is providing essential solutions, despite fluctuations in airport revenues.” Other data points:

"By 2016, approximately 95% of airports plan to invest in mobile apps to provide status information on flights and the airport, and to help passengers navigate through the airport."
"75% of airports will offer passenger services via social media by 2016, up from 56% today."
"By 2016, passengers can expect to see baggage self-service go mainstream, with more than 80% of airports around the world providing bag tag printing and assisted bag drop."
Business intelligence proves popular: "80% of airports plan to invest in new BI solutions for revenue optimization and management by 2016. Airport operations, passenger flow monitoring and airport resource management represent other priorities for BI investment. This is consistent with airports’ declared focus to use BI to improve operational awareness and the passenger experience."
Yet, "only 8% of airports surveyed have fully achieved the data quality requirements for their current BI initiatives. Data access and integration will continue to present challenges for airports as they implement BI solutions."

The survey is compiled from the responses of representatives from more than 255 airports around the globe, hitting all the main regions and accounting for 54% of total global passenger volume. The tenth edition of the SITA Airport IT Trends Survey is based on responses from participants representing more than 255 airports globally. The survey covers airports from all major regions of the world and represents 54% of global passenger traffic. This infographic breaks down the pertinent information in one place: