For
business travelers, Internet access is essential. While airports and airlines
are making it more widely available, they still are falling short of travelers'
expectations, at least according to one recent poll. Flight information
provider FlightView this spring surveyed more than 600 business travelers and
found that 28 percent and 32 percent are dissatisfied with the Wi-Fi provided by
airlines and airports, respectively.
"They
want it to be free, they don't want to watch an ad and they just want it to
work," FlightView CEO Mike Benjamin told BTN. "As it's becoming free in more places, there is that
expectation."
When
asked why some airports choose to charge for Wi-Fi while others don't, Benjamin
said, "Certainly there is some cost to them, and some feel justified in
passing it on. I haven't talked to any airport people that view it as a big
money maker, but it is moving into realm of keeping the bathrooms clean—it is
just something you have to do if you want to run a good airport."
FlightView
conducted its survey of business travelers, part of a larger poll of 2,600 of its
users, between March and May. According to the results, about 94 percent want flight
status reports delivered to their phones, 70 percent want mobile alerts when
their flight is boarding and 63 percent want seat upgrade availability
notifications. "The last two are less available," Benjamin said,
noting that flight status updates are widely available from FlightView and
other information providers. "The upgrade piece oftentimes is not as
simple as it sounds from an airline systems point of view. Delta has a pretty
good system for publishing and managing that kind of information, but that is
not the case at all airlines. Some airlines are doing things where the person
at the gate has more judgment than you would think."
Among
other findings, nearly 70 percent of business travelers want the ability to
rebook via mobile apps; more than 57 percent want standby status and terminal
maps on their mobile devices; and 36 percent want their mobile devices to
handle ticket upgrades and ground transportation bookings. Meanwhile, 84
percent of business travelers said they use their smartphones on airplanes
while for laptops, it's "less than half and about tied with tablets,"
according to Benjamin. "It struck me as surprising that more business
travelers are leaving their laptops at home."
To
empower travelers with the information they want, Benjamin suggested that
"the airlines probably have a leadership role in general, but that's not
to say that the airports can't make a big difference. [Airlines and airports]
realize it's in their interest to get the information out there so people are
not in the dark. That is a big change from years past when the agent wouldn't
tell you because they didn't know or didn't want you to get upset. But at this
point, you are going to find out through some other means, so they might as
well get it out there so people can deal with it. That transparency shines a
light on the process and improves it."
FlightView
counts among its clients 120 airports, Expedia, Trondent, various airlines and
other travel companies. It claims 1 million downloads of its apps, including a
new release last week of a free app including flight status notifications.