As India’s passenger growth is choking key airports in the country, air passengers are resorting to technology to skip queues and minimize their travel time, shows a 2017 SITA Passenger IT Trends Survey, a global survey released by IT provider SITA and co-sponsored by Air Transport World.

“While the use of technology among Indian airline passengers remains high at check-in (87%) and booking (52%), 2017 saw tremendous growth in other usage points in the journey. The research showed “While the use of technology among Indian airline passengers remains high at check-in (87%) and booking (52%), 2017 saw tremendous growth in other usage points in the journey. The research showed while adoption remains low, self-bag drop usage climbed to 21% from 12% in 2016,” shows the survey, conducted across seven Indian airports, representing 71% of passengers in the country.

Passengers are also demanding new mobile services with 83% saying that they would definitely use flight  updates on their mobile. And they would use their mobile for baggage services too: 82% would report mishandled bags and 79% would track their bags in real-time. This comes as no surprise with more than one billion Indians using at least one mobile device in 2016 of which 300 million are using a smart device, the survey adds.

The research also shows 54% of passengers would rather opt to use self-bag drop than go to an airline check-in counter, compared to 33% globally and well ahead  of current usage.

“This is good news for the industry as it provides airports and airlines the opportunity to fully benefit from technology to speed up the journey and drive operational efficiencies, helping them meet the demands of rapidly growing passenger numbers across the country,” Maneesh Jaikrishna, Vice President Indian Subcontinent, Eastern & Southern Africa was quoted in the release.

“Very soon, you won’t have a trolley going down the aisle in the plane. You order with your mobile phone, and it goes straight to the cabin crew, who will deliver the food to you. That’s already happening in the next two months, and we’ll be giving each of our cabin crew a mobile device very soon.”

That’s what Air Asia’s Tony Fernandes says in a recent article; AirAsia is pulling out the stops to become a “digital airline”, in The Malay Online. He is also quoted saying, “AirAsia is to become a digital airline at the forefront of experimenting with new technology”. Apparently, he doesn’t want our money any more either, or at least, not our cash, “On going cashless in-flight, cash “slows down everything”.

Captive is usually on the tip of every Travel Retail tongue. You will rarely find an article or a whitepaper about Travel-Tech revenue issues that doesn’t use the concept of “the captive consumer” as a reason for increased sales. But, do these so-called imprisoned Travellers really spend, in fact, they’ve never spent that much! So why will they suddenly spend more, when they are free to connect to the world at large?

Since the year dot, only around 19% of Travellers enter an airport Duty Free store and buy, (according to the Dufry CEO) and less than 1.5% of Flyers actually buy such products on the plane, (says John Garner of DFASS, the inflight retail concession giant), and these were the captive ones!

Now, take away the Cart, add inflight Wi-Fi and remove the readership from the paper version of the inflight magazine*, whilst training your Crew to take orders on a tablet, rather than sell face to face and what have you got?

In modern times, inflight Travel Retail (excluding Catering) is primarily a Fragrance, Cosmetics, Watch and Jewellery business, with some impulse gadgets bolted on. Tourists will buy tobaccos or liquors (if available on Charters), but in reality, it majors on easy-to-carry Brands, based on impulse and Crew engagement.

Take these conventional methods away by becoming “too millennial” and you then run your Retail Store strategy through Consumer thumbprints on their phones, or a poke at the seatback screen, but will you really sell more?

I bet if you asked Christine Martin, inflight retail’s leading Crew Training and Consultant in the field of airline sales, she’d tell us that Crew engagement and product knowledge is the main factor that influences the sales performance from that Cart in the aisles. It’s no coincidence that her “iSpy” (Inflight Sales Person of the Year) forum, where Flight Attendants hone their sales skills, has acquired world renown in the Industry for more than a decade.

By taking away that Bar Box, floating by after dinner and before the movie or sleep and what do we get?

Are we now going to dive for our smartphone to order that perfume, watch or those earbuds and where does this leave the correlation with the inflight Mag, almost always picked up right at the end of the runway? Or, how many Tourists returning on Charter flights will continue to think, “I may as well use-up my foreign currency and buy a gift for myself”?

Meantime, those Avionics Firms are all pushing hard with inflight connectivity. We are all yet to read one of their Ivy League market studies or whitepapers (related to Consumer Behaviour and new revenues), that doesn’t claim potential huge shopping revenue growth because the Passengers are captive on board. Many airport retailers, (those who only collect just 19% of Consumers), are also infected with the same glass-half-full thinking.

If the current Captive Consumer doesn’t buy, why will he suddenly buy more when he gets his digital Freedom? Methinks not… he is going to his phone to do what he normally does and those nimble thumbs are going to find Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter or likely a Guide to his destination, with shops and offers galore.

It seems that none of this muddled Airline digital stampede lends itself to increasing that 6% inflight retail share very much. In fact, it is lending itself to the abolition of unnecessary weight, inventory and traditional on board selling techniques.

All of which are no longer “captive” at all, but escaping into cyberspace at 35,000 feet, to a Store that best understands partnerships, easy delivery and the best concept of all…. the lowest prices!

And perhaps, once all those inflight digital thumbs start dancing their way to The High Street, Airlines might just decide that they are better off with Galleys full of Food and Drinks, dump their Duty Free and just acquire virtual revenues from all those Stores on the ground.

*Ink Publishing are the Global leaders for inflight magazines and have substantial evidence of high readership numbers. Many of these Publications include the Duty Free catalogues and price lists.

Thank you to IM Smith for sharing

Source : https://tinyurl.com/y9ghy36j

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