At the 2019 Euro Air Transport IT Summit (November 5-6) in Lisbon, Portugal, SITA has revealed that airlines and airports spent a record US$50bn in 2018 on IT to support improvements to the passenger journey.
The figure has been published today as part of the SITA 2019 Air Transport IT Insights report, which revealed that the industry is continuing to increase its IT spend and that this investment has resulted in a significant improvement in both the satisfaction levels for passengers and average processing time.
The report also reveals that 60% of airline CIOs recorded up to a 20% year-on-year improvement in passenger satisfaction. During the same period, 45% of them recorded up to 20% improvement in the rate of passengers processed.
These strong returns on investment in technology were also seen at airports where 63% of CIOs reported a year-on-year improvement of up to 20% in passenger satisfaction levels while 44% recorded quicker passenger processing times.
Matthys Serfontein, SITA president, Air Travel Solutions, 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. Technology is key to alleviating the industry’s capacity crunch and avoiding negative impacts on passengers.”
