Brands
Latest top stories

Passengers Have Gone Digital. Can Aviation Catch Up?

22 October 2025

In an era where people manage their health, banking, and even home energy use from their phones, flying still feels strangely analog. Printing boarding passes, waiting in queues, and juggling disconnected travel apps is not the seamless experience digital-first passengers expect.

That disconnect sits at the heart of the SITA Passenger IT Insights 2025 report — subtitled Travelers’ Voice — which surveyed more than 7,500 passengers in 25 countries. The findings reveal a widening gap between travelers’ digital expectations and the air travel reality. But they also show an enormous innovation opportunity for airlines, airports, and governments ready to act.

“Passengers aren’t resisting change,” said SITA CEO David Lavorel, in a press release on the subject. “They’ve already changed. They’ve gone digital. Now it’s our turn. The future of travel isn’t just about adding tech. It’s about removing friction.”


From Data to Direction: What SITA’s Research Shows

When SITA launched its Passenger IT Insights series in 2010, the goal was simple: understand which technologies travelers actually use. Over time, it’s evolved into something much deeper — a diagnostic tool that measures passenger frustration, emotional responses, and the readiness of the industry to evolve.

Today, SITA’s Travelers’ Voice doesn’t just capture feedback; it points to systemic gaps that hold back aviation innovation. The methodology combines quantitative surveys with qualitative research from SITA’s global network of airports, airlines, and baggage systems — and intelligence from industry partners like IATA, ACI, Gartner, and McKinsey.

The audience for these insights isn’t the average passenger. It’s the CIOs, CTOs, and Heads of Digital Transformation at airports, airlines, and border agencies — the people deciding where billions in IT spending go each year.

Their challenge is clear: scale passenger flows, cut costs, and handle post-pandemic travel growth without adding complexity. And, increasingly, to do all that sustainably.


The Disconnect: Three Big Gaps in Air Travel

The report identifies three major disconnects: simplicity, trust, and sustainability.

1. Simplicity: The Quest for Seamless Journeys

Modern travelers expect journeys as smooth as ordering a ride or checking in online. Yet 64% of passengers still cite shorter queues as their top demand, and 42% want a single multimodal ticket covering air, rail, and local transit.

Passengers also want real-time, personalized updates. One in three say they would like a single digital app managing their travel end to end — from identity to baggage.

The industry has made progress: mobile adoption across identity control, border checks, boarding, and bag collection rose 4–7 percentage points in the past year. But, as SITA’s analysts note, “adoption happens where the industry offers the technology — and it needs to happen faster and at scale.”

2. Trust: Biometrics and Data Transparency

If the early 2010s were about self-service kiosks, the 2020s belong to digital identity and biometrics. Most passengers now prefer biometric gates to staffed counters. The share of travelers willing to use mobile digital IDs has climbed to nearly 80%.

This willingness comes with caveats. Travelers will embrace automation — but only if it’s paired with transparency. They want to know how their data is used, who owns it, and what benefits they gain. In other words: convenience is welcome, but trust is everything.

Frequent flyers and younger travelers lead the charge. Adoption is strongest in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, outpacing Europe and North America. The message is unmistakable: the industry can’t rely on outdated systems when the next generation already expects biometric boarding as standard.

3. Sustainability: Flying Smarter, Not Just Faster

The sustainability story is equally revealing. Travelers are no longer passive about aviation’s carbon footprint. The average passenger is now willing to pay 11.3% more to offset emissions — up from 10.8% in 2024.

Younger travelers, business passengers, and frequent flyers are the most committed — and increasingly, they expect airlines to take the lead. Many are even willing to share travel data with AI platforms if it helps optimize flight paths, reduce fuel use, or enable more efficient routing.

In other words, passengers are asking the industry not just to innovate for convenience, but to innovate responsibly.


Why Aviation Still Lags

If passengers are so ready, why isn’t aviation fully digital yet?

The reasons are structural. Airlines, airports, and border agencies operate in one of the most complex regulatory and operational environments in the world. Legacy IT systems, fragmented ownership, and slow procurement cycles make transformation notoriously hard.

SITA’s team says that transformation is happening — just unevenly. “Adoption happens where the technology exists, but it needs to happen faster and at scale,” they told MoveTheNeedle.news. The challenge, they added, is reassuring passengers with clear communication as automation expands.

The takeaway: technology isn’t the obstacle — coordination is.


What the Industry Can Learn from Banking and Healthcare

SITA points to other sectors for inspiration. Digital banking, online healthcare portals, and e-government services have all embraced mobile-first design and data interoperability. These industries built from the ground up, replacing legacy systems rather than layering new tech on old foundations.

Aviation must now do the same. That means upgrading infrastructure to support real-time data flow between airlines, airports, and governments. The goal: a seamless web of live information connecting every touchpoint — from booking to boarding to baggage reclaim.

This level of digital maturity doesn’t just streamline operations. It enables personalization, sustainability tracking, and a more resilient passenger experience.


The Opportunity: A Digital-First Industry

For airlines and airports, the business case is compelling.
Passengers are already digital. They expect the same autonomy, transparency, and personalization they enjoy elsewhere. Meeting that demand could redefine competitiveness in the next decade.

SITA sees itself as a catalyst for digital transformation, co-innovating with partners across travel and transport. “We listen to passengers and decision-makers alike,” a spokesperson explained. “We then apply those insights to product development — ensuring we create solutions that help the industry scale smartly and passengers travel seamlessly.”

That means investments in biometric corridors, cloud-based airport systems, AI-driven baggage handling, and data-sharing frameworks that make border and airport processes interoperable.

These are not futuristic visions — they’re the foundation of aviation’s survival in a world where digital-first passengers already expect more.

For an industry facing growing capacity constraints and environmental scrutiny, inaction carries real risk. Failing to meet digital expectations could mean longer queues, lower customer satisfaction, and lost loyalty to competitors that get it right.

It could also push travelers toward alternative modes of transport — particularly in regions like Europe, where high-speed rail offers a credible, greener alternative for short-haul travel.

The broader message is stark: aviation innovation is no longer optional. It’s a prerequisite for future growth.