Just 1,000 days to the "mobile" revolution in air transportation: the margin of time that separates us from the next evolution in the sale of air tickets predicted by Sita, a company specializing in providing IT solutions and communication services for the aviation industry , presented in Brussels in the course of IT Trends 2012. After 2015, in fact, well over 60% of airline bookings and transactions will be made ​​using the network and the mobile phone. The study that monitored the strategies and planned investments for over 100 airlines and airports in the world, leaves no room for doubt: IT spending this year airline will be 1, 6% of their budgets (in 2011 was 1, 5%) and the top of the investments, according to the management of major air carriers in the world, people are passenger services (56%), tools to reduce operational costs (50%) and operations to increase revenue (42%). And precisely in the passenger-client relationship with the revolution "M" will make a big difference, because it will be decisive in giving direct sales channels (from one of the kiosks at the airport) the primacy of trade than indirect sales, including those in brokerage agency that still hold a good 50% of the transacted.

Reality, Not Fiction

The study "Airline Business IT Trends Survey" of Sita presented in Brussels shows that 93% of airline passengers considers mobile services for one of the priority items on which to focus their investments over the next three years, with 58% who already planning programs on a large scale.The annual survey conducted by Sita has certified that the world of services offered via mobile is reaching all aspects of travel and airport operations, thus attracting more and more investment by airlines dedicated to technology. The 'mobile', then, is no longer fiction but a reality in the sale and distribution: more than half of the airlines involved in the survey already sells tickets via devices "mobile" and by 2015 will be 89% the total operation.The great transformation of this sector is not only the field of sales. This year's survey shows that the airlines use "mobile" applications for all aspects of their activities. By 2015, nine out of 10 companies expect to have some of the most important services available on mobile flight search, check-in, boarding passes, ticket purchase, flight status notification, and auxiliary services such as the ability to track and their luggage, in case of delay or loss, forward the complaint directly from your mobile phone, without passing by the operator.But there's more: half of the airlines has already developed services "mobile" for the search for the flight and check-in, providing in most cases even boarding passes, opportunity to purchase tickets and notifications on flight status directly on the smartphone. Then there is the great question of "tablet", the new frontier of technology that is already revolutionizing the customer service (see the Alitalia-Motorola agreement) and that will break even in the so-called "ancillary services" in an aircraft.

Social Media: More and More Important

Presenting the Airline IT Trends Survey 2012, Francesco Violante, SITA CEO, said: "Almost all companies have focused on the" mobile "for all aspects of their activities. Mobile applications, as well as improve the travel experience for passengers, they also help reduce internal costs and generate profit. It is the second consecutive year that mobile technologies will reveal a growth driver for companies and their spread in all aspects of this area shows that it is a transformation of the real business of the airlines. "
Accelerator pressed also in communication and dissemination of airline info, where, according to the ratio of Sita IT Trends, social media will do the lion's share: nine out of 10 airlines in the survey said Sita who want to invest in social media over the next three years, 57% consider them a significant vehicle for the promotion of sales, with 39% stressing their importance, especially in customer service. Four out of 10 companies are already promoting their flights through social media and almost 90% plan to do so by 2015.
Social media and mobile applications in less than three years will open the door to forms of increasingly personalized services: 78% of the airlines involved in the survey are already offering, or planning, customized solutions through its direct channels.

The New Role of Travel Agents

On balance, after 2015 - watershed year for commercial aviation - there will be a dominance of the sale "custom" through new channels, extensive use of social media, which will become the largest platform for marketing, and an increasing spread areas of "self-service" not only for boarding passengers but also for the labeling of luggage. The "insatiable" demand for aviation user information, promotions and product control-flight, will also force the traditional sales channels, including travel agencies, an evolution driven to intercept customers and stay on the market . In fact those actors that organized distribution will know and will want to invest on the website, the "mobile" and applications for the tablet, they will have more business opportunities, while the others remain at the window and not renew their businesses, they will see a 'activities "on the edge of the future."




Source: lagenziadiviaggi.it