Flight information service
FlightView has compiled the results of its latest survey, showing that lack of functionality and inferior interfaces are the main barriers to wider adoption of mobile booking.
The survey was pushed to users of FlightView's Android and iPhone apps, and received reponses from 3,186 travelers.
While the results are not from a broad swath of travelers - focused entirely on mobile users of the FlightView app - the results show a lack of satisfaction of current mobile functionality when it comes to flights.
By asking current mobile-centric travelers using FlightView to follow and track flights, the sample size is more likely to have a developed understanding of other existing mobile offerings.
The questions, the lacks and the wants
FlightView, which bills itself as the "day-of-travel" information service, focused the survey on the current status of mobile apps in the airline and airport space.
The questions ranged from demographic qualifications - leisure or business, coach or first, favorite social media platforms - to direct questions about desired functionality from airline and airport mobile offerings.
The first step was to frame the discussion by determining if the respondents had searched for travel services on their smartphone, and if they had ever actually followed through with a booking via a mobile device.
Despite this low booking percentage a significant portion of respondents from the FlightView app were obviously users of 3rd party services - and there were also a good number that actually used branded airline apps.
Among those that used the airlines' apps, there was a slight skew towards the apps being full-featured enough to be useful. 45.3% did not think there were enough features. This question had quite a few skipped respondents; however, there were 721 respondents who did not use the airlines app so the numbers do add up.
Rather than simply off-the-shelf apps, the surveyed travelers are looking for more customization that provides more utility than many of the current apps.
Some of the features that sparked interest in the surveyed travelers were things that they hadn't actually purchased in the prior year: add-on amenities and upgrades.
The most important designation here is "pushed to your mobile device." Travelers are increasingly comfortable with push notifications, especially when they are targeted, relevant offerings that enhance their experience. Airlines could very realistically boost ancillary revenues by allowing customers to opt-in to these sorts of marketing promotions.
In addition, users expressed interest in additional functionality that could lead to incremental revenues by airlines, airports and other travel providers. What's interesting here is that the majority of travelers said that they wanted visual tracking of the plane's location backed into the app - of course, this makes sense, given the FlightView sample.
However, this is also a very serious threat to FlightView - what would happen if airlines incorporated this ability to track live flights into their branded apps?
FlightView CEO sees the lack of functionality fulfillment as a serious missed opportunity:
Traveler adoption of the mobile channel is nearly complete – now the airline industry needs to focus on converting use into revenue. Our research shows that airlines are not yet effectively monetizing mobile solutions. The carriers that figure out how to do this first will have a major leg up on the competition.
Tnooz asked Benjamin to expand a bit on the above point, and on the survey results in general.
You speak about "converting use into revenue." Please expand on this, explain what you mean, and also then go into some concrete examples of missed opportunities.
Travelers rely heavily on mobile devices and information to improve their day-of-travel experience. From flight check-in to mobile boarding – smartphones and tablets make travel easier and more productive.
However, despite high usage by travelers, airlines have not yet capitalized on mobile as a point-of-sale. Our survey found that nearly 90 percent of travelers use smartphones to search for flights, but less than 37 percent actually use their smart phone to purchase tickets.
The missed opportunity is more pressing when it comes to ancillary services. Our research shows that travelers want relevant offers and upgrades – like early boarding privileges or in-flight WiFi – pushed to their phones at the right time. But few airlines are doing this today, making it a missed revenue opportunity.
For example, most travelers don't purchase early boarding privileges when they book a ticket. However, if they are at a crowded gate, realizing that the cabin and overhead bins will be packed, some travelers would go ahead and purchase that privilege in real-time -- if it were pushed to their phones.
From the FlightView perspective, what are steps brands can take to improve functionality and the user experience?
Mobile has many limitations, like screen size and the lack of a keyboard. More than half of our survey respondents said the sheer difficulty in entering all the required information on mobile devices holds them back from making more mobile purchases.
For airlines, the key to driving more mobile purchases is improving the information architecture and navigation on mobile applications, such as reducing the clutter on a flight search results page and enabling the user to filter, sort, and drill into details as desired. Also, it is important to determine what information can be stored in user profiles so travelers can avoid having to re-enter information with each purchase.
It’s crucial that airlines simplify the purchasing process. The easier it is on travelers, the more mobile revenue airlines will see.
What examples are there of travel companies doing it well
In terms of information architecture and navigation, Kayak and Expedia do a nice job. I don’t know of anyone doing a really good job of storing user profile information and pre-populating purchase forms.
Delta, United and American do a nice job of keeping track of user preferences and loyalty information in their apps.
H
ow do you think that a sample size comprised entirely of FlightView users has impacted the results?
We think it adds credibility. The main impact on the results is the demographic: this is a study on mobile purchasing, completed by mobile travelers. As FlightView users, nearly 100 percent of respondents regularly travel with mobile devices.
How does a flight tracking service such as FlightView play into this mobile usability/functionality discussion?
Flight-tracking apps and services are crucial to the day-of-travel experience. Travelers crave reliable, accurate and real-time information – anywhere, and anytime. Surprisingly, of those respondents who reported being dissatisfied with airline mobile apps, almost 30 percent said their number one complain was inaccurate data.
Airlines need to get the flight information part right; One of our mottos at FlightView is ‘a well informed traveler is a happier traveler.’ If an airline’s flight information is slow to update or inaccurate, travelers will seek out that information from other sources, including third-party flight-tracking apps like FlightView. This decreases overall usage, and the opportunity for mobile revenue.
Flight-tracking apps also tend to have stronger user experiences. They provide flight information for multiple airlines in one app – making it a one-stop app for flight information.
NB: App vending machine courtesy
Shutterstock.