Survey Finds Air Travellers Set to Drive the Wearable Device Market

A major chunk of air travellers the world over are tech-savvy and are gradually getting hooked to using devices like smartwatches and glasses to help them on their journey, a recent global survey finds.

The survey carried out jointly by the Geneva-based aviation communication and IT firm Societe Internationale de Telecommunications Aeronautiques (SITA) and aviation journal Air Transport World showed that nearly 77 percent of the passengers surveyed would be comfortable using wearable technology to help them in their air travel.

The annual global survey, which sampled 6,277 passengers travelling through the world's top 30 airports, highlighted the growing trend of tech-savvy air travellers.

Almost every passenger, or 97 percent of them, carried a smartphone, tablet or laptop when they flew and 1 in 5 travelled with all 3.

The passengers also wanted to be able to use technology at every point of the journey and many of them already do.

While 76 percent of them use airline apps, 43 percent say this has made a definite improvement to their travel and planning the travel.

Over half of those surveyed also sought more investment in technology to help them in better comparability of airline fares (54 percent), better real-time flight information (52 percent) and in-flight wireless services (52 percent).

About 53 percent wanted personalised alerts about any delays sent directly to their phones and 57 percent sought airport maps and directions. Half would like to use their smartphone for boarding instead of a paper boarding pass, the survey showed.

SITA CEO Francesco Violante said that "tech-savvy passengers expect more personalised apps and services consistently delivered on the web, to their phone or tablet."

Violante added new technologies like smartwatches and glasses have now become commonplace and "they present a great opportunity for airlines and airports to engage directly with their passengers to provide efficient services throughout the journey".