A survey of 100 airlines has found over half now offer online check-in and 89% expect to offer it within the next two years 

The 9th annual Business IT Survey, co-sponsored by Airline Business and SITA, found that 21% of passengers use online check-in and, by the end of next year, this is expected to increase to 35%. 

In addition, 37% of the traveling public is expected to use check-in kiosks in 2007 with these numbers expected to reach 49% in 2008. 

SITA chairman Paul Coby said: "Airlines are increasingly using web check-in because they want to make travel easier for their passengers." 

The survey shows that 60% of airlines have already completed their IP migration and predicts that by the end of this year, 80% of airline systems and 83% of airline sites will be IP-enabled. 

Almost half of the airlines (48%) already offer passenger notification services and 91% expect to offer within one to two years. 

By then, 52% of airlines are planning to offer self-boarding and 76% plan to implement mobile phone check-in. 

E-tickets are widely in use, and by the end of 2008, 86% of all tickets issued will be e-tickets. 

Bar-coded boarding passes, which allow self-service and are widely used for web check-in, are also being introduced by the airlines. 

The survey shows that 46% of airlines have already started eliminating the magnetic stripe boarding passes. By the end of 2008, this figure is expected to rise to 88%. 

Even though 54% of respondents planning to spend more on technology in 2007 than in 2006, the percentage of revenues spent on IT by the industry continues to fall and is now at 2.1% dropping steadily from 2.5% in 2003. 

Coby explained: "It's not surprising to find airline IT spending very much focused on projects with proven payback and/or cost savings."

20 October 2007