The 2012 SITA/Air Transport World Passenger Self-Service Survey shows a strong interest among passengers at Beijing International Airport to use more mobile self-services. Over 90% want to search for flights and receive flight updates and boarding passes on their mobile phones. Some 71% of passengers surveyed in Beijing were carrying a smartphone, allowing them easy access to such services.

Known as the China Gateway, Beijing Capital International Airport is ranked the second busiest airport in the world for passenger traffic; it handled more than 77 million passengers in 2011. This is the third year it has been included in this global passenger survey.
These results are a big jump from last year, when just 67% of passengers at Beijing expressed an interest in mobile flight updates (94% in 2012) and 78% showed an interest in mobile boarding passes (92% in 2012).

Overall interest in self-service is high at Beijing but the level of actual usage, though rising, is still catching up with rates at other airports. This year, 53% of passengers surveyed at Beijing used self-service check-in on the day of the survey, an 18% rise since 2011 but still lower than the global rate of 68%. One of the six airports in the survey recorded a self-service check-in rate of 85%, which clearly demonstrates the potential for increased adoption at Beijing.

Likewise, mobile check-in and mobile boarding pass usage have potential to grow. At Beijing, 28% of passengers used mobile check-in and just 8% a mobile boarding pass, while global adoption rates are 32% and 21% respectively.

David Fu, SITA Vice President, China, speaking at the China Aviation IT Forum in Hangzhou, said: "The benefits of self-service to airports, airlines and passengers are well documented. Each year when we do the SITA/Air Transport World Passenger Self-Service Survey we see passengers at Beijing International Airport embrace the services that are on offer and increase usage levels. The 2012 survey confirms that Beijing passengers have a huge interest in using more mobile and self-service technologies throughout their trip."

Managing baggage is one stage of the journey where Beijing passengers are particularly keen to adopt self-service. Currently 83% of surveyed passengers at Beijing check-in their bags at a counter and 40% find baggage check-in or collection the most stressful element of travelling. Their interest in self-service bag drop is the highest in the world: 81% of Beijing passengers want to use it compared to the global average of 68%. Some 94% want real-time baggage information sent to their mobiles and in the unfortunate event of a bag going missing, 92% want to report it using their mobiles.

These key findings are from the seventh annual SITA/ATW Passenger Self-Service Survey, carried out with a sample of the 280 million passengers who pass through six of the world’s leading airport hubs: Abu Dhabi International; Beijing Capital International; Frankfurt International; Hartsfield-Jackson, Atlanta; Chhatrapati Shivaji International, Mumbai; and Guarulhos International, Sao Paulo. The survey included 2,526 passengers from more than 70 countries.