World moving to airport self-service check-in’s

The SITA Airport IT Trends survey, unveiled at the Airports Council International world conference in Kuala Lumpur has found that IT budgets for airports in 2008 were largely unaffected by the global economic downturn and the majority (80%) of the world’s leading airports aim to make passenger self-service the primary channel for check-in

The sixth annual survey had a record 106 responses from airports and airport groups representing 172 airports from around the world including 56 from the Top 100 in terms of revenue and passengers.

More than half (52%) rated the introduction of “electronic documents” as the technology which will have the most significant impact at airports in the near future, according to a new global survey.

This will initially be driven by the adoption of bar-coded boarding passes sent directly to mobile phones – a key enabler for paperless travel.

The world airport IT industry is estimated to be worth $3 billion and 45% of this year’s survey respondents expect an increase in budget in 2010 while only 14% expect a lower budget.

SITA vice president for airports Catherine Mayer said: “Airports are also recognising that passengers bypassing check-in counters may be faced with new bottlenecks and queues at baggage drop-off and security screening areas.

“As a result, airports are turning to various automation tools to track wait times at different checkpoints such as security and immigration.

“Of the respondents who said they will monitor wait times in the future, 60% will use video analytics, 43% will use RFID and 27% plan to use Bluetooth technology.”

The high priorities for airport IT investments are:

*Passenger Processing & Services” (61%);

*Passenger Security (56%); and

*Airport Operations” (51%).

Baggage processing and management also remain among the highest ranked investment areas for the Top 100 airports (51%) but is a lower priority for less congested, smaller airports.

Fifty two per cent of airports rated the use of “electronic documents” as the technology with the most significant impact on IT & telecom systems at an airport.

Half of all airports believe providing solutions on mobile devices for passengers or staff at airports will have the highest impact on their IT infrastructure, with more than 60% of airports already having check-in kiosks which will further increase to 90% by 2012.

New usage areas receiving the highest interest are:

*Common bag-drop locations –                                           12% today to 48% by 2012;

*Automated boarding gates –                                               8 % today to 42% by 2012;

*Self-service kiosk for passenger transfer services – 11% today to 39 % by 2012;

*Self service kiosk to report lost baggage –                    5% today to 36% by 2012.