The buzzword on IoT is a hard reality that seems to be finding itself more tangible in the airline industry. SITA published a report that highlighted the IT trends in the airline industry, how they are picking up, what is the future of IoT, and how the airlines would plan to employ them. A number of projects are being invested upon by the airlines such as queue lengths and time to gate, to passengers via mobile apps, and further down the line smartwatches. Roughly about 60% of airlines imagine the cyber security concern to be bigger and be taken as a business risk. Innovative projects are starting to take a larger slice with a particular focus on the mobile market making the apps a go-to technology for self-service, information or customer service.

The survey focused on realising that the cyber security is progressing amongst the airline industry with over 200 airlines adopting technologies in coming years to manage cyber risks that have doubled by the last year. Amongst other IoT investments, there has been a growing focus on the maintenance, development and innovation.

This year would see a gradual inclination towards the growing fondness of IoT. The initiative of fuel/ engine monitoring has seen the dawn. IoT connectivity is being deployed with a number of airlines showing interest in IoT gateway technologies like beacons and sensors to provide passenger information has grown sharply. Smart baggage tagging, single travel token and fuel engine monitoring respectively would be evaluated over the next three years.

On the wearable technology front, airlines are still catching up but slowly. Smartwatches and glasses seem to have more potential in the next five years than the present times. Similarly, single biometric travel token is expected to become a viable alternative to current passenger identity processes.

Cyber security has taken the lead in the list of major concerns for CIOs in the present times. More than 70% of airlines have beefed up education and training around cyber security and would be seen as a norm across all airlines in the next three years. Other initiatives that see adoption in the next three years would circle around cyber security’s software development, incident response, and intelligence analytics.

Connected aircraft has also seen a rise in demand as they are configured with advanced communication capabilities. The main benefit would be derived majorly from service improvement rather than passengers. Wi-Fi would replace IFE technology and enable connectivity on passenger’s own device.

Mobile has been defined as the solution to the conundrum. There has been observed a steady growth of mobile check-in and information services have seen enhancing mobile apps. More airlines are planning location-based smartphone and tablet services.

Also, China has come up as a potential market and the industry trends that engulf the entire nation seem to be scaling with time.

However major challenges that could be faced whilst airlines build momentum for IoT implementation are cost factor with over 53% of airlines cited it as a major concern. For passenger related projects, perceived invasion of passenger privacy was an IoT challenge to some degree.

As IoT has become a daily fair in our lives, airlines definitely don’t plan on being left behind. Find crunching numbers in the full report here.

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SITA and ShoCard are planning to change how the identification of travellers is done at airports. To do so, they are looking at ways to store the ID securely on the blockchain and authenticate using it. ShoCard has been working on a service that would allow storing the identity of an individual on a bitcoin blockchain and the same can be used in different ways. In a bid to improve the experience of travellers at airport, SITA is working with the startup to explore how their technology can be implemented.

The scanned documents of the traveller are stored with a public and private key. These documents are encrypted and hashed to ensure security. Passengers would generate a single travel token with their documents using ShoCard which will be used to authenticate the ID at various checkpoints during travel. The data would remain with the passenger but the token would allow for the validation of identity against the validation data stored on the blockchain database. This data cannot be altered or deleted.

The airports all over the world maintain their database of traveller IDs in different ways and ShoCard and SITA are working to create a decentralized standard so that different airports don’t have to trust the data of others as the validation data is stored on the bitcoin blockchain which can’t be altered by any of them. The project is still in nascent stage and they are working on a prototype to identify the applications and roadblocks they will face in implementing the system all over the world.

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Despite recent economic challenges, China’s population continues to travel and passengers are demanding more from airlines and airports. China’s airports and airlines are responding with higher levels of investment in innovation than found globally. The “Smart Airport” is coming to China. As the aspirations of Chinese consumers increase, so does their expectation for a better travel experience. The willingness of passengers to use self-service gives the industry the opportunity to rethink the airport layout and how it manages passengers. Nearly three-quarters of airports in mainland China (72%) are investing in new technology compared to 58% globally. While airlines in China are spending 38% of their IT budget on innovation compared to a global average of 32%.

An analysis published by SITA, the global provider of IT to the air transport industry, shows that passengers desire to use their own technology will lead to a major shift to “off-airport” check-in. In addition, passengers want to use their smartphones for identification purposes and access, including boarding the aircraft and entering airport lounges.

May Zhou, SITA Vice President and General Manager, China, said: 

“Our global IT surveys cover trends from the perspective of passengers, airlines and airports. We combine this with SITA’s on-the-ground industry experience to provide a unique 360-degree view of technology investment and usage within air travel. We work with airlines and airports across China to identify opportunities, work together and invest in innovative technology that can meet and exceed the expectations of travellers. This is particularly challenging and rewarding during these times of fast-rising passenger numbers.”

Key findings of the analysis-

#1. Self – service gives the opportunity to the industry to rethink the airport layout in China.

Source: SITA Analysis

Passengers in China are vouching for a more convenient way to travel. People are expressing a strong inclination to move to self-servicing functionalities, especially on their personal device. Check-in at the airports is declining seriously as passengers prefer using their personal devices. Self-servicing kiosks will turn up the as the next big trend, however, the usage of such technology could be less adaptive given the rise in off-airport check-ins. The use of sensor technologies, such as Near Field Communications(NFC) would automatically transfer the boarding pass as the passenger passes through the gate. Although trends of off- airport check-ins are picking up, the baggage remains a challenge in the self-servicing sector. The move was rather not welcomed as the passengers preferred face-to-face processing at airport counters.

#2. M for Mobile

Source:SITA Analysis

The industry is acting on the high passenger aspiration to use mobile. Smartphones are fast becoming a unifying technology that will allow seamless interaction between passengers and travel providers. 67% want to use their smartphones both for access, including both the aircraft and the airport lounges and for identification purposes. Mobile boarding passes are key enablers for mobile optimized journey and airlines are keen to migrate people to mobile boarding passes. Airlines are coming up with baggage tracking notification and baggage collection information on mobiles in a couple of years down the line.

#3. Investment in technology for rapid growth pan-sector.

Source: SITA Analysis

Greater investment is required to make better usage of capacity and infrastructure. Airports can be made smarter by enabling the exchange of real-time information, cross collaboration and airport- wide process integration. New technologies are underway as they would reduce wasting time in queues, provide flight information or help turnaround. Emerging concepts like business intelligence initiatives will monitor passenger flow and airport operations.

To get more details, you can find the full report on SITA website.

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