Passengers going all in for mobile and touchless tech, SITA Insights show
ITA’s 2022 Passenger IT Insights research highlights pent-up demand for both business and leisure travel emerging from the pandemic, with passengers further embracing mobile and touchless technologies.
The survey reveals an increase in passenger use of mobile devices for booking, on board the airplane, and for bag collection in Q1 2022 compared to Q1 2020, while automated gates saw increases in adoption for identity control, boarding, and border control.
The results clearly reflect the accelerated digitalization of air travel since the outbreak of the pandemic and passengers’ willingness to adopt technologies. However, health verification is a pain point that has slowed end-to-end automation. In Q1 2022, despite some uptake of technology at this stage, over half of passengers were still doing their own research on health verification requirements and manually submitting documentation.
SITA’s research also finds reduced technology adoption in the early stages of the journey (check-in, bag tag, and bag drop) in favour of manual processing. Uncertainty about health requirements and travel rules has likely led travelers to seek more staff interaction when starting the journey.
The survey shows that the more technology there is during travel, the happier passengers are. As many as 87% of passengers have positive emotions about identity control, up 11% from 2016; the same is true for 84% of passengers about bag collection (up 9%). These are also the areas where technology adoption has risen the most, driven by mobile and automated gates, with half of passengers now additionally receiving real-time information at bag collection on time until delivery.
Asked about comfort levels with biometric identification throughout the journey, passengers scored an average of almost 7.3 out of 10 (with 10 representing most comfortable), most likely reflecting their desire for ease of travel moving forward from the pandemic.
As recovery gathers pace, SITA’s Passenger IT Insights survey says that passengers intend to fly more from 2023 onwards than they did prior to the pandemic, anticipating averages of 2.93 flights per passenger per year for business, and 3.90 for leisure. When weighing up whether to fly or not, the main barriers are ticket prices, health risks, and geopolitical risks.
Passengers also consider sustainability before they choose to fly. Around half of passengers would value airports and airlines putting in place new IT solutions to support sustainability (such as monitoring airport environmental performance to reduce emissions and flight path optimization to reduce fuel burn). On the airport front, this initiative has overtaken green airport infrastructure for most valued since Q1 2020, suggesting all eyes are on the promises of technology to support concrete reductions to the environmental impacts of the industry.
Almost all passengers would pay on average 11% of their ticket price to offset carbon emissions from their flight. Asked if the air transport industry is doing enough to become more sustainable, more than half of passengers either think not, or don’t know, suggesting there is room for industry improvement in communicating sustainability initiatives and actions.
Ascott boosts stable with Oakwood
Kevin Goh: All set to play a bigger role in the lodging market.
The Ascott Limited, a wholly owned business lodging unit by CapitaLand Investments Limited (CLI), has acquired global serviced apartment provider Oakwood Worldwide from Mapletree Investments.
The move increases Ascott’s global portfolio by 81 properties and about 15,000 units. The group’s global presence is poised to encompass more than 150,000 units in about 900 properties across over 200 cities in 39 countries, once the acquisition is complete. Oakwood’s approximately 8,500 operational units are expected to immediately contribute to Ascott’s recurring fee income streams upon completion of the transaction slated in Q3 2022.
New markets brought by the acquisition will include Cheongju in South Korea; Zhangjiakou and Qingdao in China; Dhaka in Bangladesh as well as Washington D.C. in the USA. New properties such as Oakwood Premier Melbourne and Oakwood Hotel Oike Kyoto, will also add to the group’s destination highlights.
Kevin Goh, CLI’s CEO for lodging, said: “This acquisition of Oakwood is part of Ascott’s roadmap to playing a bigger role in the lodging market. We intend to build on the strong reputation and heritage of the Oakwood brand, especially in markets across Southeast Asia, North Asia and North America.”
“Ascott’s acquisition of Oakwood brings about an immediate boost to our units under management and franchise contracts. The Oakwood portfolio will accelerate the growth of our asset-light business, with added recurring fee income streams, expanded lodging offerings and increased customer base,” added Goh.
Ascott’s strategic investments in the past years include its 2017 acquisition of one of Australasia’s largest serviced apartment operators, Quest Apartment Hotels. In the same year, Ascott invested in Synergy Global Housing, a leading corporate housing provider in the USA. In 2018, Ascott acquired top Indonesian hotel operator TAUZIA Hotel Management to enter the fast-growing mid-scale business hotel segment.
Ascott’s serviced apartment, coliving and hotel brands include Ascott The Residence, The Crest Collection, Somerset, Quest, Citadines, lyf, Préférence, Vertu, Harris, Citadines Connect, Fox, Yello, Fox Lite and POP!. With the Oakwood addition, the company is on track to achieve its target of 160,000 units globally ahead of 2023.
Air India takes transformative step with Amadeus
Signing the agreement, from left, Nipun Aggarwal, Chief Commercial Officer, Air India; Campbell Wilson, Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director, Air India; Cyril Tetaz, Executive Vice President, Altéa, Amadeus and Javier Laforgue, Executive Vice President, Travel unit & Managing Director for Asia Pacific, Amadeus
Tata Group has taken a major step towards transforming Air India’s customer experience and operational effectiveness by deploying best-in-class technology solutions from Amadeus as part of the carrier’s revitalization.
Air India is implementing the full Amadeus Altéa PSS suite, including components ranging from revenue management, revenue accounting, retailing, and merchandising, website, mobile and frequent flyer program management.
The initial PSS cutover took place in late May and a midterm roadmap was agreed upon to support the airline’s transformation ahead. Air India has a fleet of 117 aircraft, and in addition to a robust domestic network, the carrier occupies a unique international footprint ranging across geographies, including North America, Europe, and the Middle East.
