Skift Take
As IATA states in its report, “Airline passengers want what they want. Sometimes they want the same thing. And sometimes they don’t.”
At the IATA World Passenger Summit the focus was decidedly on passenger needs, except when the focus turned to promoting the organization’s new distribution capability (NDC) retailing platform, which was also presented as the ideal way to address changing passenger needs.
Here are some highlights of what air travelers say they want now, based on IATA’s and Atmosphere’s collaborative online survey of nearly 5,000 airline business and leisure passengers in eight participating countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Mexico, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the U.S.
Mobile Means Different Things to Different People
IATA’s survey found that travelers are highly mobile.
70% of business passengers own tablets and 60% of leisure travelers do.
80% of business passengers carry smartphones as do four out of five leisure travelers.
But app notifications are often wasted. Due to lack of adequate connectivity at airports, in the air, and even at home, 58% of passengers prefer airlines to update them by reliable old-school SMS. Though 69% of passengers
