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Digital Technologies Improve Travels by Air – what Passengers Wish for

2 MIN READ August 29, 2016 By Gina Wurms general posts |use case|, |travel and transportation| 0

The travel chain is becoming more and more digital. A recent study by Bitkom focuses on the question, which digital services passengers desire. Read more about it and learn about the features which the Frankfurt Airport App already offers.

According to a study by Bitkom (in German), travelers desire various digital services during their flight:

43 percent of the study participants would like to book taxi and luggage services at the arrival airport during their flight online
29 percent want to buy duty free products during the flight online and want them to be delivered to the baggage carousel
Each fourth requests the delivery of products he bought at the airport to his home
46 percent would like to choose meals and beverages which are served on the plane online and in advance

The results match with the general trend of digitalization in the travel industry:

From the point of view of a majority of experts (71 percent) who have participated in a Bitkom study from March 2016, the complete customer journey – which means the process from booking to reviewing a journey – will be handled digitally.

Digital services before, during and after the flight: the Frankfurt Airport App

The Fraport AG, one of infsoft’s longstanding clients, has been keeping an eye on these trends since a couple of years and has been providing its passengers with an app since 2010. Test the app here.

Some of the features, which are regularly improved, are:

scan of the boarding card and matching real time information about the flight status and waiting times via push notification
parking space finder, calculation of the costs, online booking
Frankfurt Airport Online Shopping: online shopping, picking up the products at the terminal and collecting bonus points
all customer data, flights and the shopping chart are saved in a customer account. Thus, the device can be changed (i.e. smartphone, tablet, desktop PC, terminal at the airport)
sign translator
digital airport maps and indoor navigation which displays the travel time to POIs such as shops, facilities, services and gates

Digital guides help establishing customer loyalty

The customer journey during the whole travel chain is becoming increasingly digitalized. The travel by air is one important and extensive part of that chain. It starts with booking a flight online and is only finished when the passenger enters his hotel room at the destination. The passenger needs a lot of information during this phase. Most of them must be absolutely up-to-date and in real time. The app becomes an essential guide and can thus create high customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in favor of a certain airport or airline – both of which are essential factors in an industry with price transparency and high competition as determining factors.

There are a couple of trends which could be crucial factors for persuasive customer service in the near future: Automatic communication via chatbots, more and more individual customer journeys and intermodal travelling, which includes different means of transport from door to door.