Obviously, this is great news for airlines, but it’s a win for the business traveller too. The process from booking to boarding a flight can be tedious, it can take anything up to four hours to get through an airport, which is frustrating for anyone taking a domestic flight to a meeting in London which will only take an hour. This friction goes against the fundamental purpose of business travel: to use time more efficiently.
The good news for the airline industry is that, despite the impact of the pandemic, the business traveller is still here, but their expectations are higher than ever.
In a post-Covid reality, 68% of consumers expect more digital interactions from their merchants, and a massive 4.4bn will be using a digital wallet by 2023 to pay for all online services. In fact, almost all – 90% – of western travellers will use digital payments to pay for travel.
These figures have not gone unrecognised by the industry. More than half (60%) of airline CEOs believe digital transformation is the most important thing to focus on post-pandemic. Done well, this will not only improve the payment journey but help regain profitability and growth.
The challenge is in reconciling traveller expectations with the reality of a complex payments ecosystem, which today includes more than 200 payment methods used globally.
Velocity can help with fast, easy roll-out of a diverse payment eco-system and solution to orchestrate every transaction end-to-end and fluidify your customer payment experience while keeping it simple. Don’t let payments come between you and an outstanding customer experience.