Passengers @ Beijing Airport Want More Self-Service

The 2012 SITA / Air Transport World Passenger Self-Service Survey shows a strong interest among passengers at Beijing International Airport to use more mobile self-services.

Over 90% want to search for flights and receive flight updates and boarding passes on their mobile phones. Some 71% of passengers surveyed in Beijing were carrying a smartphone, allowing them easy access to such services.

Beijing Capital International Airport is ranked as the second busiest airport in the world for passenger traffic, it handled more than 77 million passengers in 2011. This is the third year it has been included in this global passenger survey.

These results are a big jump from last year, when just 67% of passengers at Beijing expressed an interest in mobile flight updates (94% in 2012) and 78% showed an interest in mobile boarding passes (92% in 2012).

Overall interest in self-service is high at Beijing but the level of actual usage, though rising, is still catching up with rates at other airports. This year, 53% of passengers surveyed at Beijing used self-service check-in on the day of the survey, an 18% rise since 2011 but still lower than the global rate of 68%. One of the six airports in the survey recorded a self-service check-in rate of 85%, which clearly demonstrates the potential for increased adoption at Beijing.

Likewise, mobile check-in and mobile boarding pass usage have potential to grow. At Beijing, 28% of passengers used mobile check-in and just 8% a mobile boarding pass, while global adoption rates are 32% and 21% respectively.

David Fu, SITA Vice President, China, said, “The benefits of self-service to airports, airlines and passengers are well documented. Each year when we do the SITA/Air Transport World Passenger Self-Service Survey we see passengers at Beijing International Airport embrace the services that are on offer and increase usage levels. The 2012 survey confirms that Beijing passengers have a huge interest in using more mobile and self-service technologies throughout their trip.”

Managing baggage is one stage of the journey where Beijing passengers are particularly keen to adopt self-service. Currently 83% of surveyed passengers at Beijing check-in their bags at a counter and 40% find baggage check-in or collection the most stressful element of travelling.

Their interest in self-service bag drop is the highest in the world: 81% of Beijing passengers want to use it compared to the global average of 68%. Some 94% want real-time baggage information sent to their mobiles and in the unfortunate event of a bag going missing, 92% want to report it using their mobiles.

These key findings are from the seventh annual SITA/ATW Passenger Self-Service Survey, carried out with a sample of the 280 million passengers who pass through six of the world's leading airport hubs: Abu Dhabi International; Beijing Capital International; Frankfurt International; Hartsfield-Jackson, Atlanta; Chhatrapati Shivaji International, Mumbai; and Guarulhos International, Sao Paulo. The survey included 2,526 passengers from more than 70 countries.

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