That’s the verdict from SITA’s latest Travelers’ Voice Passenger IT Insights 2025 report, which captures the views of more than 7,500 passengers surveyed at 25 airports worldwide.
The findings underline a widening disconnect between how people live their daily lives — managing finance, healthcare and mobility from their phones — and how they experience air travel, where queuing, paper-based systems and manual checks remain routine.
Travellers’ top demands are clear. Almost two-thirds want faster airport processing, while 42% want a single ticket that covers air, rail and road in one seamless journey. Mobile is increasingly the hub: usage for managing travel has risen by 20 percentage points since 2020, with younger generations setting the benchmark for what frictionless travel should look like.
“Passengers aren’t resisting change. They’ve already changed,” said David Lavorel, CEO of SITA. “They’ve gone digital. Now it’s our turn. The future of travel isn’t just about adding tech. It’s about removing friction.”
Technologies that once seemed futuristic are rapidly becoming expected. Most passengers now prefer biometric gates to staffed counters, while nearly 80% say they are ready to store passports on their phones — and two-thirds would even pay for that convenience. Global adoption of digital identity is forecast to leap from 155 million users today to 1.27 billion by 2029.
Environmental responsibility is no longer optional. Nearly 90% of passengers told SITA they would pay more for flights with lower emissions, while many said they would fly slower or pack lighter to reduce their carbon footprint. Crucially, travellers now expect airlines and airports to match those commitments with visible, tangible action.
Even baggage, long a sore point in air travel, is being reshaped by passenger expectations. Mishandling rates may be at historic lows, but 78% of travellers say they would still pay for end-to-end baggage services. Trust in reliability and transparency has become a measurable driver of travel choices.
SITA’s research paints a stark picture: passengers are not waiting for the industry to change — they already live in a digital-first world. What they want now is for aviation to deliver journeys that are simple, trusted and sustainable, backed by tools such as biometrics, digital IDs, real-time data and smarter baggage services.
As Lavorel put it: “We’re asking passengers to adapt to travel. But they’re asking travel to adapt to them.”