Smartphone Survey

Smartphone Survey

What do you expect from your smartphone as a traveler? SITA, a global aviation telecommunication company, recently surveyed passengers at six international hub airports to find out. The airports were in Atlanta, Beijing, Abu Dhabi, Frankfurt, Mumbai and Sao Paulo.

The highest percentage of travelers who own smartphones was in Atlanta, where 75 percent of those polled were carrying such a device. Throughout all the airports, first and business class passengers and travelers who take 10 or more trips a year were most likely to carry a smartphone, at 74 percent. First and business class passengers were also more likely to use their phones to check-in for their flights at 36 percent. More than 50 percent of frequent flyers said they rely on their devices for SMS flight notifications.

What they don’t want, however, is information about shopping deals– with more than four out of five saying they would not be interested in receiving that type of information on their smartphone. Three out of four said they would connect to a free airport WiFi network with the phones, and 23 percent said they would be willing to pay for certain information services, including flight information (77 percent) and security waiting times (50 percent).

Overall, those carrying a smartphone went from 28 percent in 2010 to 54 percent this year.