The Centre for Aviation has conducted a comprehensive survey of 10,675 respondents across 153 countries, and the results revealed that not only do passengers want more control over their airport experience, but that they have very specific requests when it comes to the technological advances they would like to airports implement first.
The biggest so-called "pain points" for travelers are security and border control. To that end, the passengers surveyed said that those two "pain points" were the first they wanted airports to resolve, specifically by having them automated. What's more, the passengers surveyed said that the variation in security screening procedures at different airports, the inconvenience of having to unpack electronic devices in carry-on bags, and the intrusiveness of having to remove personal items were all determining factors in their desire to automate the security processes.
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Other "pain points" that the Centre for Aviation discovered that passengers would like to see resolved include a single identity token, real-time information, more efficient security, aircraft boarding, and baggage.
64% of all respondents said that they would like a biometric identifier as a single identity token for all travel processes.
63% of all respondents want real-time information sent directly to personal devices, 85% of passengers want to be able to check the status of their flight, and 50% want to track their bag throughout the trip. In addition, 51% wanting to know wait times at security and border control and 58% wanting to know wait times at arrival customs. SMS messaging remains the preferred option for receiving travel notifications. 28% of passengers prefer communication through smartphone apps, and 26% through email.
As the use of automated immigration kiosks rises, so too does customer satisfaction. 58% of respondents said that they used automated immigration kiosks (up 6%, from 52%, over the previous year). 90% of customers who used these kiosks reported that they were satisfied with these automated kiosks.
Finally, 72% of passengers now preferring to self-board. 68% of those surveyed want to self-tag their bags, with electronic bag tags being the preferred option. In addition, 48% of passengers wanted to self-drop their bags.
The complete report can be found here.