Mobile phones to takeover from self-service kiosks

Airport self-service kiosks are expected to be overtaken by smartphones, as airlines increasingly focus their IT spending on mobile technologies. “Adoption [of kiosks by passengers] is the problem,” SITA senior VP-marketing and sales operations Arthur Calderwood said at the 2012 Air Transport IT Summit. “We think we’re introducing solutions, but the dots don’t join up.” Only 39% of airlines believe kiosks will be a dominant passenger processing channel beyond 2015, according to the 2012 Airline IT Trends survey. Smartphones and websites will battle it out to be the prime channel, with both attracting 71% of the vote.