KUALA LUMPUR: Airports and airlines worldwide are spending more on IT infrastructure as the future of air transport will be highly driven by digitalisation, according to SITA.
SITA, the global leader in technology solutions for the air transport industry, said IT infrastructure spending among airports and airlines would have reached an estimated RM213.5 billion (US$45.3 billion) in 2023.
SITA Asia Pacific president Sumesh Patel said out of the total amount, about RM50.9 billion (US$10.8 billion) are expected to have been spent by airports while airlines might have spent some RM162.6 billion (US$34.5 billion) last year.
Patel said during the pandemic, many airlines and airports had released some of their staff.
"Quite a few of them left the industry as well. Now, not many has come back (to work in the same industry).
"With that challenge, clearly the airlines and airports are increasing the investment in IT and digitalisation to help them deal with the passenger growth and also to provide better service to the passengers," he told Business Times in an interview.
Patel said as per the International Air Transport Association (IATA) projection, 4.2 billion people are expected to travel in 2024 making it important for airports and airlines to speed up their digitalisation adoption.
One of the most crucial technological services that can be used at airports is the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) where passengers could do an auto clearance before they arrive into their destination country.
"If they do that, then not everyone will have to go to the manual counter of (airport) immigration. The passengers can have a walk-through experience and use e-gates on arrival," Patel said, adding that the ETA could reduce congestion at arrival.
SITA had worked together with Singapore Changi Airport and airports in Australia to implement the ETA.
The digital services provider also did a pilot project in Australia to implement mobile registration at airports where passengers use a digital passport to register for check-in and travel as well as a pre-clearance at destination airport before arrival.
Patel said it is important for airports and immigration to work together to ensure a smooth arrival experience for travellers.
"The countries where we see that these technologies are in the advanced staged of implementation is where we see the airport and the immigration collaborating better," he said.
He added that SITA is also working with the International Civil Aviation Organisation to implement a new IT service – digital travel credentials (DTC) for travellers.
A DTC is a digital version of a traveller's identity which can temporarily or permanently substitute a conventional passport.
"In the future, maybe there is no need of a (physical) passport as it would be replaced by the DTC. Visas and information in a person's digital wallet can be validated and authenticated."
"From a passenger's point of view, the DTC allows them to have a walk-through experience at every step of his journey – from check-in, boarding, at arrival, baggage – all using the passenger's digital identity," Patel said.
He added that most airports in Southeast Asian countries including Malaysia are already adopting digitalisation in terms of their passenger service experience particularly on the usage of biometrics.
He also said the DTC can also be extended to other transportation services such as rail and cruise as well as hotel check-in.
"The passengers can use the same digital credential as part of their full end-to-end journey. They don't need to produce any (physical) documents. Their ticket can be seamless. For example, when they purchase an airline ticket, it could also include their cruise or train ticket so it becomes one single itinerary or journey."
"Another example is if they have a bag checked, they don't need to collect the luggage at the airport and check-in again for their cruise. It will be taken care of. They can have a seamless experience on their travel journey," Patel said.
One example of DTC that SITA has worked on is the Aruba Happy One Pass where together with Aruba Ministry of Tourism and Aruba Tourism Authority, a seamless travel experience was introduced in the Carribean island during the pandemic.
Patel said the DTC had allow passengers to get visa and arrival clearance and walk-through immigration without having to check or touch the physical passport.
"They want to have a touchless experience for arrival but what has transformed since then is not just at the airport.
"We have gone even beyond with our partners where we have helped to enable all the travel documents such as visa, boarding pass, frequent flyer account information registered in the passenger digital identity and the passenger digital identity was not only used at the airport but at restaurants as well," he added.