Last week, The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced the results of its 2023 Global Passenger Survey (GPS). The GPS results are based on over 8,000 responses from more than 200 countries and provide valuable insight into what passengers would like from their air travel experience.
Discussing the results of this year’s survey, Nick Careen, IATA’s Senior Vice President for Operations, Safety and Security said:
“Passengers have made it clear: they want to spend less time booking and move through the airport faster. And they are increasingly willing to use biometric data to complete more pre-departure tasks off airport to achieve this.”
The GPS results restate that passengers value convenience. Whether this is for selecting the departing airport, choosing a payment method, or identifying a destination. Once at the airport, passenger expect a similarly streamlined process, and seem comfortable using technology or off-airport processes to facilitate this. Here are some of the key takeaways. You can view the full results here.
- Among seven different payment methods, the most popular was credit / debit card (73 per cent), followed by digital wallet (18 per cent) and bank transfer (18 per cent).
- Digital wallet penetration is most popular in the Asia Pacific region, where 41 per cent of respondents cited this as the preferred option. The next highest market was Europe (15 per cent) followed by Middle East (14 per cent).
- 25 per cent of potential product/services sales during the customer journey could not be eventually completed because of payment issues.
- 87 per cent of travellers indicated they would share their immigration information to speed up the airport arrival process, representing an increase from the 83 per cent reported in 2022.
- Passengers want to complete more processing elements off-airport. 45 per cent of travellers identified immigration as their top pick for off-airport processing.
- Passengers want more flexibility and more control in the baggage process. 67 per cent would be interested in home pick-up and delivery, 77 per cent said they would be likely to check in a bag if they could tag it and check it in before they get to the airport and 87 percent would be willing to check in a bag if they could track it.
- 75 per cent of passengers prefer using biometric data over traditional passports and boarding passes.
What growing trends do you think the 2023 GPS results will show?
For more like this see:
- IATA 2022 survey reports passengers want simplification and convenience
- IATA unlocks seamless travel with digital identity
- IBS Software survey identifies the shortcomings of airline retail
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