Airlines and airports spend a record $50 billion on IT in 2018

During 2018, airlines and airports have invested a record $50 billion on information technology (IT) in order to improve passenger experience.

According to figures published by SITA, those who invested are now seeing a significant improvement in passenger satisfaction levels and average processing times.

SITA President of Air Travel Solutions, Matthys Serfontein, said: “The good news is that the growing investment in automating the passenger journey means the industry is providing a faster, more pleasant airport experience. This is a real success story for automating the passenger journey, particularly at a time when we expect passenger numbers to double over the next 20 years, with physical airport infrastructure struggling to keep pace.”

SITA’s 2019 Air Transport IT Insights report shows that 60 per cent of airline Chief Information Officers recorded up to a 20 per cent improvement in passenger satisfaction, and 45 per cent recorded up to a 20 per cent improvement in the rate of passengers processed. Similar rates were reported by airports, with 63 per cent of Chief Information Officers reporting up to a 20 per cent improvement in passenger satisfaction levels and 44 per cent recording quicker processing times.

Total IT spend for airlines rose to 4.84 per cent of revenue, after several years of virtually flat growth, and total airport IT spend grew to 6.06 per cent of revenue. Forecasts for 2019 investments expect these numbers to continue to grow.

Serfontein continued: “Overall, we can see that the industry is focused on improvements to its operations to make it more efficient and facilitate better collaboration with partners and other stakeholders in what is a highly-integrated industry. This in turn is having a profoundly positive impact on the service they are able to provide to passengers.”