Airlines are becoming more proactive on the mobile app scene, enabling travellers to do increasingly more transactions on their smartphones while on the move - from booking flights to checking-in.
British carrier, bmi took the plunge last month with the launch of a mobile site – mobile.flybmi.com – enabling customers to search for fares and book flights, manage their booking, check-in online and access airport information, all through their smartphones.
It’s not a new trend. Singapore Airlines already offers a very similar app – “SingaporeAir Mobile” – for the iPhone and Android. While British Airways has its own mobile site at ba2go.com, but the app doesn’t allow passengers to book flights.
Delta has instead taken the social media route and last year launched a flight-booking tool on facebook. Malaysia Airlines followed suit with the launch of “MHBuddy” in February – an app allowing customers to book flights, select their seats, and check-in through facebook.
While experts predict that the mobile phone is set to overtake the computer as the most common device to access the internet, travellers are not necessarily feeling all the benefits of mobile booking tools, argues Mark Scourse, business development director at UK-based digital agency, 3Sixty.
He adds: “Mobile airline apps that allow passengers to book flights directly will only be of use to a very small segment of high-frequency travellers. I question how many incremental bookings will be achieved through this channel rather than through the airline’s website.”
“But this doesn’t mean that it’s not a valid strategy, as the marketing benefit might be significant.”
What kind of mobile apps should we expect from airlines in future?
As travellers tend to use a desktop, laptop or tablet device to research and book flights, airlines can provide a valuable service to customers in transit through the airport, by complementing their websites with “useful, tailored and real-time information” through smartphones, Scourse adds.
Air France-KLM is a good example. The airline group launched the “Air France Connect” app earlier this month. It is a free service, which keeps passengers informed of flight delays, cancellations and gate changes, and even if their bag has gone missing and in real-time on smartphones.
Near-field communications – one to watch
One future trend that may have a major impact on the way people travel is ‘near-field communication’ (NFC), says Scourse.
The technology allows smartphones to act as payment devices that, when swiped over a reader, allow automatic transactions to be processed.
Just like mobile apps, the benefit for passengers is greater convenience.
“In the airport environment, NFC could be used with airport retailers to track a passenger’s spending and link it back to their profile in a marketing database. NFC may also allow a phone to act as a means of identification, replacing boarding cards and wallets,” he adds.
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