Airports will exploit m-commerce opportunities by 2019

Vast majority of airports will exploit m-commerce opportunities by 2019, according to new report.

INTERNATIONAL. Almost 85% of global airports plan to enable passengers to purchase airport services through their mobile app by 2019, according to a new report from SITA and Airports Council International (ACI).

The figure is up from the 68% reported in the 2015 version of the ‘Airport IT Trends Survey’. In addition, 29% of airports plan to extend purchasing of airport services to passengers’ smartwatches in the same timeframe.

Offering unlimited free public Wi-Fi at the airport, which could encourage mobile app usage, is becoming less popular according to the survey

Only 34% of airports have plans to incorporate in-app purchasing using new payment options such as Apple Pay or Android Pay, according to the survey. A number of ‘major challenges’ with incorporating m-payment capabilities into their apps were identified. The most common three were ‘compliance with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) requirements’ (26%), ‘upgrading of payment terminals’ (23%) and ‘enabling transmission of payments from terminals to banks’ (24%).

‘Integration with legacy systems’ was only considered a major challenge by 9% of respondents although 73% thought it would be ‘some challenge’.

According to the report, which is based on the responses of more than 225 airports representing 36% of global traffic, a third of airports have no plans to introduce cashless payments.

Potentially hindering the opportunity for m-commerce is the fact that offering unlimited free public Wi-Fi at the airport is becoming less popular. While 74% of airports provide this service today, the figure will drop to 54% within three years. “Many, particularly in North America and the Middle East, are moving to a time-limited free access model,” SITA and ACI noted. The number of airports offering time-limited access to Wi-Fi will rise from 23% today to 37% by 2019.

Source: Airport IT Trends Survey 2016

Total airport spend on information and communication technology (ICT) this year is projected to top the US$9 billion mark for the first time (US$9.07 billion). As a percentage of revenues it fell back slightly in 2015 to 5.21% from its peak of 5.82% in 2014.

Despite ACI estimates indicating airport industry revenues grew to US$150 million in 2015, it was not enough to fully offset the percentage drop, meaning global IT spend dipped in 2015 in absolute US dollar terms.

Nevertheless, 61% of CIO respondents at airports indicated they received an increase in their IT budget for 2015, while only 12% saw their budget cut.

In terms of prioritising budget spend, passenger and airport security has become a ‘high priority’ for 50% of airports compared to 37% in last year’s survey. That moves it up to second in the overall IT priority list from fifth in the 2015 survey.

New technologies

The report also showed that sensing technologies, such as beacons, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi, which gauge the movement of people and assets around the airport are attracting strong interest. Nearly half of airports (48%) are implementing major programmes over the next three years, up from 30% in the 2015 survey.

Source: Airport IT Trends Survey 2016

The adoption of contactless mobile technology Near Field Communication (NFC), remains subdued with only 10% of airports planning a serious deployment, down from the 14% of airports seen last year. Nevertheless, 43% are assessing the technology with small scale evaluation projects.

The survey also noted commercial self-service trends. These include kiosks that enable passengers to download digital content such as films before boarding. While only 4% of airports offer this service today, 26% have plans to do so by 2019.

Similarly, using a kiosk to complete a sales transaction is available at only 4% of airports today, but 38% are showing interest and expect to have this functionality in place within the next three years.

Another emerging trend is the Internet of Things (IoT). Today, a third of airports have incorporated the IoT into their IT strategy, while a further 43% have plans to do so over the next three years.

Airports’ digital strategies and the way they are making use of new technologies was a key theme at The Trinity Forum 2016, with many speakers and panellists discussing and debating the topic on both days of the conference. Some of the highlights of the conference were reviewed in the latest edition of The Moodie Davitt e-Zine.

Source: Airport IT Trends Survey 2016 : http://tinyurl.com/j8fyxkc

 

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