27 February 2009

SITA goes crystal ball gazing

SITA has predicted a revolution in how passengers in the future will use the online flight-booking engine.

The specialist in air transport communication and IT solutions marked its 60th anniversary with a look at how technology will change the face of air travel over the next five years.

Chief technology officer Jim Peters said: "The rise of social networking over the internet means that the days of the simple online flight-booking engine are numbered.

"Web 2.0 technologies will transform airline web sites into travel planning portals that go far beyond date and location.

"By making it faster, easier and more cost-effective to provide real-time content from diverse sources, Web 2.0 technologies meet travellers' demands for greater information and personalisation.

"In the near future when a customer makes a booking, the airline website could extract the passenger's preferences from its frequent flyer programme, combine it with external content from travel web sites so that hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions can be overlaid on a Google map and the traveller can then take a virtual sight-seeing tour and be linked in with friends' travel plans."

SITA forecasts that mobile devices are about to have the same impact on the passenger journey as the jet engine did 50 years ago.

"Mobile phones are fast becoming access points to online services and over 90% of passengers carry them.

"Digitally-equipped passengers will access all their travel needs while on the move including purchasing airline tickets and checking-in.

"Mobile boarding passes could save the industry $500 million as we move towards paperless travel.

"The launch last week of in-flight mobile phone services on Ryanair by SITA's subsidiary, OnAir, is further proof of how important the mobile phone is becoming for today's travellers."

Biometric identification and the use of mobile devices will also be boosted by the adoption of Near Field Communications (NFC), a short-range high frequency wireless communication technology that enables the simple and fast exchange of data between devices over a space of about 10 cms or four inches.

The technology is intelligent, secure and interactive which makes it ideal for the air transport industry.

Peters added, "NFC makes it possible to provide electronic services to travellers in a simple way while reducing the amount of paper and plastic cards a passenger has to carry for a journey.

"A NFC-embedded mobile phone may be all that's necessary for a passenger to take their flight.

"The ticket can be purchased online and sent to the mobile phone; check-in can then be made on the way to the airport.

"Biometric border controls verify the passenger's identity and a simple wave of the phone across a wireless reader at the gate validates the e-boarding card enabling the passenger to walk directly onto the aircraft."