75% fliers want better baggage collection: Survey

Travel travails

Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently bore the brunt of missing baggage en route to an Australian city but she was not the only one.

A worldwide survey by Geneva-based aviation communication Societe Internationale de Telecommunications Aeronautiques (SITA) and aviation journal Air Transport World has said 75 per cent of passengers believe that there is a need for improvement in collecting baggage at destination.

Collecting baggage at destination is the “most frustrating travel step” globally with 27 per cent of passengers wanting “significant improvement” while 48 per cent want “some improvement” from the existing situation.

It is high on the list of “pain points” followed by security, the survey said. Twenty-five per cent of passengers want significant improvement in security handling. “The Americas region had the highest proportion of passengers (28 per cent) wanting to see a significant improvement (in security), followed by Asia Pacific, while passengers from Europe and Africa/Middle East were generally happier with their travel experience,” the survey said.

Although a vast majority (78 per cent) of passengers were generally happy with their travel experience, half of all passengers see room for improvement while 22 per cent report “major levels of dissatisfaction.”

However, the survey points out that the technology has helped in reducing the frustration of passengers. In general, it said, travel steps where technology has been, or is starting to be, widely implemented such as the searching and purchasing of tickets, check-in and in-flight give passengers lower levels of frustration.

With passengers getting more tech-savvy, the survey said 53 per cent of passengers agree that online technology had “definitely improved” their travel experience.

The impact of mobile devices on travel continues to increase and this year’s survey found 97 per cent of passengers carried a phone, a laptop or a tablet when they travelled. In fact, it said, 18 per cent of passengers travelled with all the three.

With a growing number of airlines providing wireless systems that enable passengers to use their own mobile devices during the flight, the survey said a good majority (56 per cent) would use their smartphone, tablet or laptop for in-flight entertainment.