Airline IT Trends Survey 2009

A survey of key airlines to provide insight on significant IT trends

Undertaken annually by SITA and Airline Business magazine, the Airline IT Trends Survey has helped underline the strategic importance of information technology (IT) within the airline industry.

Now in its 11th year, the data provides a set of global benchmarks that offer a detailed picture of the latest IT trends.

Download the Airline IT Trends Survey 2009 executive summary
(2.10 MB)

Key findings of this year's survey

A Large fall in IT & Telcoms spend in 2009 - predicted to remain constant in 2010

IT Opex (as % of revenue) has dropped to 1.7% this year. The scope for further cuts appears limited and has probably reached it lowest point.

IT & Telecoms continue to be critical to the survival of airlines

Reducing enterprise costs & generating revenue opportunities are the prime focus for IT investments
Virtualisation and SOA are among the technologies receiving the highest investment attention
The majority of airlines rated "New CRM & direct customer relationship" as the trend having the MOST impact on the IT&T infrastructure, closely followed by "creating ancillary service & unbundling"

Online distribution is set to become the most significant sales channel

Airlines expect to increase the proportion of tickets sold through online channels from 26.7% to 41.4% by 2012
Almost all airlines see an opportunity to increase own website sales
Adding website functionality and new online products are regarded as the key tools to achieving this

Mobile services are set to transform the passenger journey; Airlines are keen to increase the speed of adoption and availability of mobile services

Airlines predict nearly 12 % of passengers will use mobile phones to check-in by 2012
25% of airlines already offer mobile check-in services to their passengers, with availability among the Top50 airlines significantly higher
Other popular mobile services are: "Notification about flight status & delays"; it will be offered by 80% of airlines by 2010

Airlines have ambitious plans to increase the usage of electronic BCBP on mobile devices

Currently only a fraction of passengers receive electronic BCBPs on their mobile phones, but airlines expect significant growth by 2012
In terms of adoption, 54% of airlines expect to be able to send BCBPs to mobile phones by 2012
Additional usage of electronic BCBPs: More than half of the respondents plan to use BCBP on mobiles for lounge access

Increasing focus on self-service with attention shifting towards greater functionality for the more established technologies such as kiosks

Both, web & kiosk check-in are now well established among airlines, and will reach almost 100% adoption by 2012
Printing bag-tags and facilitating flight transfers will be the most widely deployed new functionality for kiosks

The use of mobility solutions targeted at staff will steadily increase

The strongest interest is for: baggage handling, aircraft maintenance, in-flight cabin service and assisted boarding control/check-in
Crew related processes, such as inventory management and rostering, are the main focus areas for mobilisation of in-flight cabin services

About the survey

Over the past 11 years, the Airline IT Trends Survey has enjoyed a steady rise in the number of responses from airlines, underlining the importance and relevance of this type of survey to the industry.

The Airline IT Trends Survey is an independent poll of senior IT personnel working within the top 200 passenger carriers; 116 airlines responded to this year's survey, including 11% classified as low cost carriers, and 27% were airlines carrying over 20 million passengers, making this survey a good representation of the industries opinions.

The complete research results of the Airline IT Trends Survey 2009 are available for purchase on CD, providing the responses to all of the survey questions together with a commentary. Although individual replies remain strictly confidential, results are broken down by geography and airline size, with results weighted by revenue and passenger numbers, where appropriate, to give industry averages. All 2009 survey respondents will receive the CD for free.

Full results on CD

The full survey results, covering more than 30 questions, are available to buy on CD for US$ 499.00.

> Order the full survey