Smartphones_New_Frontiers_Paper

Five stePs oF air travelthat smartPhoNes willchaNge by 2020a rough guide for the digital traveller

New Frontiers Paper

2 NEW FRONTIERS PAPER © sita 2010

contents

Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Trip planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Déjà view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Dial m for commerce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Getting to the airport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

check-in on the go . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

making travelling easier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Navigating the airport. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

express travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Networking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

trading places . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Near Field communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Taking the flight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

sky-high entertainment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Final destination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

baggage tracking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

late landing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Reality check. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Notes and references. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Foreword

mobile technology is emerging as the new frontier for innovation. it will increasingly be at the centre of our digital existence –

a common denominator linking all aspects of our lifestyle together. it has already been the most rapidly adopted technology

in history with the number of global mobile subscribers expected to surpass the five billion mark this year - over 70 percent

of the world population.1

there will be no let up. mobile handsets are getting smarter, led by the apple iPhone, the blackberry and google android

phones. they will become cheaper, giving a much wider economic group high-speed access to the internet.

there is a wide array of opinions, even amongst experts, on what the mobile world in 2020 will look like, but there is also a

degree of consensus in many areas.

n it will be a data centric world with voice calls overtaken as the primary usage of the mobile handset.

n the mobile handset will be the principal means for online access - the only one for a majority of people across the world.

already over 60% of chinese internet users access it via a mobile device.2

n mobile handsets will become an all-in-one device as powerful as laptops. mobile devices - digital cameras, gaming

devices, mP3 players, sensory devices, personal digital assistants (PDa), satnavs – will converge into the one device.

n there will be a synchronization of mobile and online web platforms to create a single web accessible from any

connected device.

n mobile product and service innovation will be driven by developing nations whose populations get online via mobile

handsets before they touch a desktop Pc.

n Keyboard dimensions and screen size will cease to be limiting factors as new input and display peripherals from voice to

sensors to 3D headsets deliver a far richer and interactive mobile experience. in particular, voice recognition will move

from niche usage to a mainstream input option, allowing users to carry out tasks via spoken commands rather than

pressing buttons or keys.

n the mobile world will be much less about devices and much more about apps and web-based services. iPhone users

have already downloaded more than two billion apps. by some reckoning there will be 10 million mobile apps by 20203 –

it will truly be “there’s an app for that” world.

For the travel industry, mobility is where the biggest passenger service opportunities of the next decade will be found.

this New Frontiers paper takes a look at some of the ways smartphones could change the end-to-end travel experience for

passengers by 2020. there is no clear road map, but rapid consumer adoption of mobile technology is already changing

travel habits and pushing back the boundary of what is possible.

FIVE STEPS OF AIR TRAVEL THAT SMARTPHONES WILL CHANGE BY 2020 3© sita 2010

trip planning

For those who enjoy planning trips as much as they do being on them, then the mobile future holds much excitement. the

smartphone of the future will assist in the holiday selection. it will have enough data on its owner to ‘learn’ what holidays to

recommend. we already see some of this on the internet today. amazon.com suggests similar books you might like to read,

while google places relevant adverts in search results. it will not only make a holiday suggestion, but pull together related

information – reviews, flights, hotels, videos – from social networking sites or other trusted sources. online sources such as

wikitravel.org will ensure the information that goes into your planning is up-to-date and relevant to your circumstances.

Déjà viewbut the real buzz for trip planners is about the explosion in geo-tagged social media. the world will be brought to our phone by

the best guides possible – those who have gone recently before. we will be able to go on a virtual holiday to anywhere and

experience what previous travellers have collectively seen and heard, while having tags of useful information placed in front of our

eyes and audio commentary in our ears.

bringing it to life is a technology termed ‘augmented reality’ – an overlay of computer-generated imagery on real life views. its

ability to use the camera and gPs functionalities on smartphones to marry data with context will provide future travellers with

much richer tools for researching trips.

coupled with 3-D headsets with heads-up visors we will be able to climb everest, knowing how bitterly cold the wind is, or sail

up the amazon with the sound of the jungle in our ears – all while sitting on the 18:05 train home from work. business travellers

will be able to familiarize the journey from the hotel to their meeting location in a virtual taxi or by taking a virtual walk, to ensure

they are not late for that vital meeting. early demonstrations of the possibilities are already taking place in Japan4.

apps such as trip Journal, for example, let travellers log video and notes on the phone, while the gPs function automatically

records the journal entry location. travel guide publisher lonely Planet has started to embed augmented reality features into

the new android versions of its mobile city guide apps, while Nokia is developing an augmented reality application named

‘Point & Find’, which involves pointing the camera on your phone at objects as you travel along and planting virtual

information tags above them, which can then be shared.


Staying connectedmobile technology will be at the centre of the next wave of innovation in customer service. in particular, the powerful

combination of smartphones and social media gives airlines a huge opportunity to connect and add value to

travellers during all steps of their journey.

a glimpse of the future impact of mobile technology in shaping customer service was evident during the shutdown of

european airspace in april 2010 due to volcanic ash. airlines and airports kept passengers updated as new

information became available using social media. british airways, lufthansa and United airlines, for example,

employed twitter to resolve customer issues. airports also used their Facebook and twitter accounts to enlist help

for stranded passengers.

while the scale of the disruption makes it an extreme example, it still illustrates the huge potential of mobile

technology coupled with social media for customer service engagement. Facebook claims 150 million mobile users

amongst its active population.

For instance, today a single billboard poster showing the cost of a flight to a destination can be an effective way for

an airline to boost load factors on a route out of a city. but being able to immediately reach your local fan base on

Facebook or twitter to offer discounted tickets on a poorly booked flight the next day could take revenue and yield

management to a new level. airlines are already experimenting. last year, Jetblue offered last minutes sales to its

1.6 million followers by tweeting a sale on monday for travel over the following days.

Dial m for commercebooking the trip will also be much more convenient using your mobile handset. No longer will you need to fight for airtime on

the home computer with the rest of the family. smartphone sales, which use 3g networks to give a much closer experience

to using a desktop Pc, are surging. research by ovum estimates the global proportion of handsets that are 3g was 15% in

2009, but will reach 43% in 20145, with the figure in both europe and Japan exceeding 90%.

this will drive a migration from e-commerce to m-commerce. last July, amazon ceo Jeff bezos reported that in the

previous twelve months, customers worldwide had ordered more than Us$1 billion of his company’s products using a

mobile device. it was only 3.5% of total sales, but nevertheless it was a notable milestone for two reasons. it underlined the

increasing comfort consumers now have with purchasing goods and services over their mobile phone, but it also

represented a clear signpost to the direction many internet-driven businesses see their future sales growth coming from.

airlines are starting to embrace the shift in purchasing habits by deploying mobile websites optimized for the easy booking of

tickets from handsets. according to the airline it trends survey, conducted by airline business and sita, 70% of airlines

plan to use the passenger’s mobile phone to sell flights within three years6, while third-party apps such as Kayak, that search

multiple travel sites, will also replicate for mobile users the desktop experience for flight booking. airlines will be able to

leverage their direct relationship with mobile customers to build and sell apps to drive ancillary revenues, such as offering

upgrades, inflight wi-fi, or even priority boarding to a passenger facing a full flight.

issues currently slowing adoption of m-commerce such as the awkwardness of entering credit card details will cease to be a

problem as new mobile payment alternatives gain traction. in effect, the handset will become a wallet, replacing plastic

cards. you will be able to receive and manage your money via your mobile phone and use it to pay for products and

services. a 2010 lafferty group report looking at future banking trends concluded that by the end of the decade, the

smartphone will replace plastic cards as the primary payments vehicle7.

the shift toward on-the-go banking is already happening. Paypal type apps for your mobile phone, such as the mPayy

application for android operated smartphones, are starting to appear. mobile payments will receive a further boost in 2011

with the launch of Near Field communications (NFc) enabled smartphones. it is a short range wireless communication

technology that can exchange data with other devices, similar to the way bluetooth does and can work with existing

contactless infrastructure used by smartcards and rFiD-tagged goods today. it is a technology that heavyweight plastic card

issuers, mastercard and visa, are both investing in, as are a number of major telecom operators.


mobile purchasing will be a serioussales channel for online drivenbusinesses

getting to the airport

with handsets getting smarter and more intuitive, it brings an enormous potential to increase both personal and business

productivity. Dead time suddenly becomes productive time. tasks that needed to be completed in a fixed location such as the

office, home or a shop can be done when and where convenient.

Check-in on the goairlines and airports are seizing the opportunity by rolling out mobile services for passengers that speed up processing and

make the trip to the airport as stress-free as possible. For instance, within three years, 80% of airlines will offer a mobile check-in

service.8 Uptake by passengers is expected to quickly follow. by 2013, 12.4% of passengers will be using their mobile handset to

check-in, up from 2.4% today.9 airports will offer apps that use the gPs functions on the phone to guide you to the nearest available

parking space and tell you where to get the terminal shuttle bus.

another major evolution in mobile devices over the next decade will be that they take on a sort of concierge role in which

they serve the owner continuously without their active engagement. today, most apps require the owner to interact, but in

the future smartphones will contain advanced sensor interfaces, allowing it to be proactive by requesting and collecting

useful data even when it is residing in the pocket.

this will give travellers far more control. instead of depending on ‘pushed’ information from travel providers in the way that many

airlines provide flight status notifications today, mobile devices of the future will also be able to ‘pull’ information as and when

needed based on time, location and itinerary. your phone will tell you when it is better to catch a train instead of a taxi to the airport.

© sita 2010

Disruption managementat no time will connectivity while on the move be more valuable to you as a passenger than during disruption to the

flight schedule. in such times, speed matters so the smartphone will be your best friend. it provides the ability to

immediately take a degree of control by making informed decisions using near real-time information, and importantly,

reassess and alter those decisions while on the move as fresh information is received.

For airlines, mobile customer service provides the ability to connect directly to those passengers affected and

provide them with the latest information and possible solutions. mobile alerts on delays and flight status viewing is

already commonplace and within three years 86% of airlines will be offering the service.

it has already proven its worth. on the day in 2008 that ba flight ba038 crash-landed at heathrow, british airways

sent over 9,000 sms alerts saving unnecessary trips to the airport for passengers and reduced airport congestion

for airport authorities.

For more routine disruption in the form of delayed flights or missed transfers, mobile customer service enable airlines

to offer and put in place alternatives much quicker than would have otherwise been possible.

6 NEW FRONTIERS PAPER


The constant companionsita lab is taking the vision of a personalized itinerary

for the traveller a step forward. it is working on a

customer Journey Portal (cJP) accessible from any

mobile device that will give travellers relevant content

and task reminders throughout their journey. some parts

of this vision have already been deployed in a ‘live’

environment with malaysia airlines.

“what the person sees on their smartphone screen will

vary from traveller to traveller depending on their journey,

their itinerary and at what point they are at in that

itinerary. the intention is to provide useful services to

passengers at all stages from the planning until the end

of their return trip. it will be like having your own personal

concierge, travel agent and tourist guide available to you

anywhere and at anytime during your trip.”

Jim Peters, chief technology officer, sita

Making travelling easierUltimately your smartphone will use your itinerary to dynamically present information and calls-to-action at each step of your

journey. that means what you see on the display of the handset will be different depending on what journey you are taking

and where you are in the journey. For example, if you are driving to the airport you could see route directions taking you to

the nearest available parking place. once there, it would alert you to the need to check-in and take you through the process

while you are on the transfer bus to the terminal. as you enter the terminal it will display the airport map, indicating the route

to take for the gate and the time it will take to get there.

it sounds too good to be true, but the basic building blocks are being laid. sita lab, the r&D arm of sita, has already started

work on this type of vision (see info box), while apps exist today like tripit that automatically collect and store details of your

trips from airline and ticket booking sites. if a gate changes, it lets you know. it can also forward your itinerary to other people.

voice activated commands will make interaction with your mobile device and the performance of tasks far simpler,

particularly for those driving to the airport. basic apps already exist such as voice on the go which allows smartphone users

to listen to their emails or text messages (sms), as well as to compose messages using voice recognition software. the

software also supports voice access to the smartphone’s calendars and contacts, and works with social networking

applications including Facebook and twitter.

Navigating the airport

the universal adoption of e-ticketing in 2008 may have seen the end of paper tickets, but it has not stopped passengers

milling around the airport carrying a stack of printouts. mobile devices, though, promise to do just that.

Express travelit is the mobile 2D bar coded boarding pass (bcbP) that is proving the game changer. it allows passengers using online

check-in to carry their boarding pass in digital form on their mobile device and then use it to navigate their way through the

airport touchpoints – bagdrop, security, boarding gate - and onto the aircraft with minimal human intervention. currently

around 4% of passengers receive boarding passes this way, but that will leap to over 12% by 2013, with 75% of airlines

providing the capability.10

other services will be added that speed up processing and make travel information more accessible. the smartphone will

receive and store electronic baggage receipts, replace our frequent flyer card, enable access to lounges and eventually hold

our digital travel documents such as e-visas.

but it is three other capabilities that are becoming standard features of handsets that are causing all the excitement.

Networkingthe first development is wi-Fi. three years ago it would have been difficult to find a smartphone with a wi-Fi chip in it. but

over the next few years the majority of mobile phones will be shipped with the capability. wi-Fi access in airports is often

cheaper than a cellular data connection, especially if you are at a foreign airport and therefore want to avoid international

roaming charges. that significantly cuts the cost of using your handset for surfing the web or downloading the latest movie

for the flight.

the other wi-Fi development coming to smartphones is a new variant of the 802.11 standard that will enable wi-Fi networks

to interconnect seamlessly with other non wi-Fi networks, such as the cellular network. that means apps and services

initiated on the smartphone, for example on the way to the airport, using the phone’s cellular connection, will continue to

remain active when you enter the terminal building and the phone switches to a wi-Fi network.

Trading placesthe second is location sensing. currently, gPs functionality does not work well inside airport buildings (although the next

series of gPs satellites and a planned third series will address this), but by using an airport’s wi-Fi network, the location of

the traveller’s mobile device can be pinpointed. add in other information known to your smartphone such as the time and

your itinerary, and it can identify services and apps that may be useful to you in the airport. that could mean having

immediate access to an interactive map of the airport as you walk through the terminal door, giving you the time and

directions to the gate from your current location. you might receive coupons from nearby retail and food outlets offering you

promotional information. or what if your handset showed you the inventories of all the retail outlets? you make a selection

and buy it, collecting the purchases from the shop when you head to the gate. gifts for family and friends – done!

© sita 2010

Geo-localization: coming to an airport near youFor travellers wanting to get the full benefit from their mobile phone in an airport requires the use of what is termed

geo-localization – the ability to pinpoint exactly where the traveller is. outside it is easy enough, but inside concrete

structures like terminal buildings, where gPs signals cannot penetrate, it is much harder.

to solve the problem, sita labs is working with a european airport to run tests using triangulation and the signal

strength from wi-Fi base stations to determine the location of the traveller’s mobile phone.

once successful, the trials will extend to demonstrate a proof of concept for delivering marketing services using

augmented reality direct to a passenger’s mobile phone, as well as passenger flow tracking through the airport.

8 NEW FRONTIERS PAPER

location-based social networking will also be possible. your mobile devices will tell you if any of your connected people from

social media sites or contacts in your address book are in the airport. if you have a long stopover, for instance, you can find

others in the same situation on twitter. Just tweet with the airport code and the hash tag #boarding, and you will be sent a list

of other users in the same airport. also giving location-based social networking a kick start is the recently released Facebook

Places app that allows members to check in at bars, restaurants and shops, to see where their friends are.

airports and airlines could also benefit from location-sensing technology. by aggregating data from the mobile phones of

opted-in passengers, they will be better able to understand the real time dynamics of how people travel through the airport

and help them make informed decisions. For example, it could provide alerts to passengers on how long it will take to reach

the gate at different times of the day or aid in the setting of realistic minimum connection times (mct) at airports which

could reduce the incidence of missed flights for transfer passengers and baggage, and the need to delay connected flights

for the airlines.

Near Field Communicationa third innovation that will revolutionize the airport experience is NFc. the current plan is for NFc-enabled handsets to start

being shipped early in 2011 and that will allow mobile devices of the future to not only contain the passenger’s travel

documents and information, but exchange them automatically with sensors throughout the airport when needed. For

example, today it is common to retrieve the mobile 2D boarding pass via an email link. that can be problematic if wireless

connectivity fails when you are standing at the security checkpoint or you have to search through many new emails to find

the right one. there are ways around, such as saving a screenshot, but still, it is not quite the seamless travel envisaged.

NFc will change that. in the future the location sensing software on your phone will know you are approaching the security

checkpoint or at the gate and retrieve the stored boarding pass. a beep on your phone will confirm it was correctly verified

by the airport reader as you passed through a turnstile. the handset will not need to leave your pocket, overcoming today’s

requirement for an optical reader that needs to ‘view’ the 2D barcode at a specific angle.

apple already has plans to take its iPhone in this direction as the patent associated with its itravel app published by the Us

Patent and trademark office in July confirms.11 the patent focuses on airline reservations, check-in and baggage identification.


sensor technology will be a commonfeature of mobile handsets enabling moreself-service and automation as you gothrough the airport.

taking the flight

orson welles famously said that there are only two emotions when flying: boredom and terror.12 Finding a cure for the former

could be in sight with the latest stats from the airline it trends survey showing that 59% of airlines plan to introduce iP

broadband connectivity to their aircraft within three year.13 that opens up a whole new spectrum of possibilities for filling

flight time, including contact with people on the ground as well as access to online services and entertainment. with mobile

phones already carried on flights by over 85% of passengers14 – nearly 30% smartphones – the handset of the future will

replace the traditional seatback iFe system as the primary source of information and entertainment during flights.

the change in passenger habits has not gone unnoticed by airlines. within three years, 50% of airlines plan to use an

onboard mobile portal to offer travel info to passengers during the flight.15 british airways was the first to go in this direction

by launching its ‘club mobile’ portal in July on its business class-only flights between london city airport and JFK in New

york.16 the portal allows passengers to use their own mobile devices to access ba services.

the onboard mobile portal will also act as a gateway for further airline communication with passengers, such as onboard

shopping, choice of menu or services available at the destination airport. you will not only be able to make your selection but

also use the wallet functionality on your mobile device to make the purchases. many airlines will eliminate cash collection

onboard flights.

Sky-high entertainmentas mobile devices become more sophisticated, so will their onboard use. each passenger will have their own personalized

entertainment console in their pocket. the mobile handset will gradually replace most of the current gaming console market.

Passengers will use augmented reality functionality and browser-based gaming to get the same virtual gaming experience via

their handset that they would on the ground. For others it will be a chance to catch up on reading. mobile devices will

become the way many people will ‘read’ newspapers, magazines, and books. the apple iPad has kicked this off but it will

evolve significantly as the decade progresses.

while passengers brought up in the digital age will be relieved their umbilical cord to the world will no longer be cut in-flight,

airlines will also adapt their in-flight product to embrace the ‘always-on’ society. installing expensive video systems will no

longer be necessary with airlines instead packaging movies and other entertainment on the ground and piping it to the

aircraft for viewing on mobile devices. within three years, 41% of airlines with wireless-enabled aircraft plan to provide

entertainment for mobile devices during flights.17

seatback screens will remain necessary for the near term with wi-Fi connectivity enabling passengers to utilize the larger

screens to view their choice of mobile content. however, as new mobile peripherals develop, the sight of a contorted

passenger trying to view the screen on a fully reclined seat, will disappear. instead of the earphones that cabin staff dish out

today we could get a 3D headset with high Definition picture quality and sound that we plug into our mobile device to watch

films and concerts we downloaded before the flight.


Real-time customer feedbackas inflight connectivity through companies such as onair becomes the norm, mobile customer service will move

beyond the gate. For instance, within three years, 53% of airlines with onboard connectivity plan to interact with

passengers during the flight for disruption management.18

it will bring significant benefits for passengers, but could be a two-edged sword for airlines. Passengers will be able

to provide immediate feedback on their experience not just to the airline but also to social networking sites, during

their flight. airlines will therefore need to be far more agile and responsive in addressing customer service issues or

risk negative comments damaging their brand.

Nevertheless it is also an opportunity. Proactive airlines will be able to use this active customer engagement as a

differentiator and a way to strengthen emotional bonds with their brand. they will also be able to build a more

complete profile of their passengers for any given step in the journey, down to a very granular level.

Final destination

there are not many things more likely to put a dampener on your trip than waiting at a carousel for luggage after a long flight,

only to find it is missing. in fact the sita/atw 2010 Passenger self-service (Pss) survey shows that the safe and prompt arrival

of checked-in baggage is regarded as the third most important contributor to a pleasant trip after no delays and short queues.

Baggage trackingin reality it does not happen that often – in just over 1% of cases, according to the latest industry statistics.19 but when it

does the last thing you need is to have it compounded by losing time in a queue at the lost luggage office.

airlines are starting to take note. within three years 46% of airlines will offer lost baggage reporting and tracking on mobile

devices.20 by then there is a good chance your phone will hold an electronic version of your baggage receipt so that the

details encoded on them can be automatically used to speed up the reporting process. a majority of major airlines will be

sending baggage receipts to mobile devices by 2013.21

it is not just lost baggage that irks passengers. Just waiting at the carousel to collect it is rated second on the list of journey

steps that passengers would most like to improve.22 in the future your mobile phone will be there to ease the pain. you will

have packed your own personal rFiD chip in your luggage. an app on your phone will alert you to its arrival on the carousel,

allowing you to spend the waiting time more productively rather than jostling with the other passengers for 20 minutes to see

if your bags are going past. it will also ensure you collect the right luggage.

Late landingthe aircraft might have landed late but at least during the flight your phone will already have notified any meeters and greeters

of the new landing time, saving them arriving too early and paying for unnecessary parking time. there are already available a

dozen or so apps, such as Flighttrack, that track journeys in near real-time by flight number and display on an on-screen

map, giving scheduled and estimated arrival times, details of any delays, and information on the destination terminal.

what if you arrive at a foreign airport on the last flight? you are hungry, but nothing is open in the terminal. the phone will

make suggestions of restaurants along the way to your hotel and based on reviews from trusted sites that open late. you

want to talk to the taxi driver en route to get some local advice, but do not speak the language. the early translator utilities of

today will evolve and by the end of the decade, smartphones will include functionality that can deliver near real-time voice-to-

voice translation into your headset.


bag tracking via your smartphone willsave you time and stress.

reality check

through all the steps of the journey, future passengers will leverage wireless technology to access new services, information

and contextual data to radically change the experience of air travel. the smartphone will evolve beyond the passive device

that we see today, into a dynamic digital travel assistant that stores, maintains and processes all our travel arrangements.

For travellers that brings huge convenience.

however, there are still a few research challenges.

consumers will require stronger security to protect their interactions with the digital world, as well as better mobile back-up

and storage solutions to cope with loss, theft and damage of their physical device.

some of the technologies are also still works in progress. gPs, for example, is not accurate enough currently for many

applications and does not work well when there is no line of sight to the satellite, such as inside buildings. augmented

reality applications are still at the early stage of their potential, while sensing technologies, such as NFc, require

infrastructure deployments and also need to be added as part of the standard kit if mobile services relying on user context

are to gain traction.

another obstacle is that today apps have to be written to work with specific smartphones. it is akin to say google or

Facebook needing to create different versions of their websites to work on different brands of computer. however, an eU-

backed research consortium is looking to change that. webinos, which includes over 20 member organizations from the

mobile web, consumer electronics, and automotive industries, is developing ‘a universal application platform’ that will allow

the creation of applications for multiple devices in three years.

smarter middleware will become essential to avoid data overload and provide intelligence and effective control over the

multitude of applications accessed both from the ‘cloud’ and direct on the mobile device. tools that help people manage

their constant connectivity will be in great demand.

as devices get more dynamic, battery life will drop fast, so charging solutions and battery performance will need to evolve to

cope with all the new hardware, software and data functionality. improvements are already being made as evidenced by the

more than eight hours of battery performance for the latest Netbooks.

these are just some of the challenges. there will be others such as privacy and regulatory issues to address and some that

will be specific to the air transport industry such as the need for mobile standards that allow travel industry-based services to

work across the breadth of the air transport network.

but nevertheless mobility will be a hotspot for innovation over the next decade. it will be consumer-led, requiring travel

service providers to quickly change their mindset and approach to passenger service innovation or risk seeing a new breed

of competitors from outside the traditional boundaries of the industry step in to offer services along the value chain. those

industry players that successfully embrace mobile technology will be able to engage with their customers for much longer

than has ever been possible before. that creates a whole new world of opportunity for both service providers and air

travellers alike.

12 New FroNtiers PaPer © sita 2010

About SITAwe are the world’s leading specialists in air transport communications and it solutions. we deliver and manage business

solutions for airline, airport, gDs, government and other customers over the world’s most extensive network, which forms

the communications backbone of the global air transport industry.

created and owned by the air transport community, sita is the community’s dedicated partner for information and

communications technology. as a team of industry experts, our know-how is based on working with customers across the

global air transport community. almost every airline and airport in the world does business with sita.

sita innovates collaboratively with the air transport industry, and the industry itself drives the company’s portfolio and

strategic direction. our portfolio includes managed global communications, infrastructure and outsourcing services, as well

as services for airline commercial management, passenger operations, flight operations, aircraft operations, air-to-ground

communications, airport management and operations, baggage operations, transportation security and border

management, cargo operations and more.

with a customer service team of over 1,900 staff around the world, we invest significantly in achieving best-in-class

customer service, providing integrated local and global support for both our communications and it application services.

we have two main subsidiaries: onair, which is the leading provider of in-flight connectivity, and chamP cargosystems,

the world's only it company dedicated solely to air cargo. we also operate two joint ventures providing services to the air

transport community: aviareto for aircraft asset management and certiPath for secure electronic identity management. in

addition, we sponsor .aero, the internet top level domain reserved exclusively for aviation.

we are one of world’s most international companies. our global reach is based on local presence, with services for over

550 air transport industry members and 3,200 customers in over 200 countries and territories. set up in 1949 with 11

member airlines, today we employ people of more than 140 nationalities, speaking over 70 different languages. sita had

consolidated revenues of Us$1.49 billion (€1.07 billion) in 2009.

For further information go to www.sita.aero


Notes and references

Note 1, Page 3: The ITU, February 2010

Note 2, Page 3: The China Internet Network Information Center, March 2010

Note 3, Page 3: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8157043.stm

Note 4, Page 4: www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11494729

Note 5, Page 5: Morgan Stanley report, December 2009 – quoting figures from Ovum

Note 6, Page 5: 2010 Airline IT Trends Survey available at www.sita.aero

Note 7, Page 5: Lafferty Group report “Retail Bank 2020: A Roadmap to the Future”

Note 8, Page 6: 2010 Airline IT Trends Survey – available at www.sita.aero



Note 11, Page 9: www.uspto.gov

Note 12, Page 10: Interview to celebrate his 70th birthday, The Times of London, 6 May 1985


Note 14, Page 10: 2010 Passenger Self-Service Survey - available at www.sita.aero


Note 16, Page 10: http://www.onair.aero/sites/default/files/press_release_pdfs/01.07.2010Club%20Mobile_Final.pdf



Note 19, Page 11: The 2010 Baggage Report – available at www.sita.aero



Note 22, Page 11: 2010 Passenger Self-Service Survey

Acknowlegements:

Rudy De Waele at http://m-trends.org – ‘Mobile trends for the next 10 – a collaborative outlook’

Helge Tenno – ‘Mobile abilities map presentation’


For further information, please contact sita by telephone or e-mail:

East & Central Europe+41 22 747 [email protected]

Latin America & Caribbean+55 21 2111 [email protected]

Middle East & North Africa+961 1 [email protected]

North America+1 770 850 4500 [email protected]

North Asia & Pacific+65 6545 3711 [email protected]

North Europe & Sub-Sahara Africa+44 (0)20 8756 8000+27 11 5177000 [email protected]

South Asia & India+65 6545 3711 [email protected]

South Europe +39 06 [email protected]

www.sita.aero

© sita 10-thw-065-1 . all trademarks acknowledged. specifications subject to change without prior notice. this literature providesoutline information only and (unless specifically agreed to the contrary by sita in writing) is not part of any order or contract.

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