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Thiruvananthapuram, Oct. 3 Self-service is increasingly becoming the norm for airline passengers across the world, said a six-airport survey by SITA.

The survey by SITA, a company that provides IT solutions to airlines and airports, was conducted in some of world’s busiest airports including the Mumbai International Airport. It looked at the attitudes and habits of airline passengers based on interviews with 2,143 passengers.

According to Mr Dominique El Bez, Director (Portfolio Marketing), SITA, “This survey confirms that self-service is here to stay, with potential for truly explosive growth in emerging markets.” He pointed out that despite low Internet penetration levels in India, almost 20 per cent of passengers surveyed at the Mumbai International Airport are checking-in using the Web.

However, issues related to baggage are the main hurdle to the widespread adoption of the self-service style of travel management, the survey revealed.

Baggage is the number one reason quoted by almost half the passengers surveyed for not using self-service check-in options, Mr El Bez said.

“Addressing the baggage dilemma is a key milestone to achieving a target of 80 per cent self-service check-in for the industry,” he added. Potential solutions for solving the “baggage dilemma” such as remote check-in and bag drop services found favour with the survey respondents.

Survey respondents also supported the extension of the online self-service experience to functions such as modifying reservations.

Sixty per cent of those interviewed said they would use Web check-in in the future.

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