Think for a minute about what would happen if you woke up tomorrow morning and discovered your mobile phone, internet and television were not working – nothing to do with your own appliances – but because the networks and systems running these technologies were down for 24 hours. What would you do? Would your day be negatively affected in any way by this lack of digital access?

These are questions that I would often ask during my “Digital Economy” seminars

To put it mildly for most people, it would be “inconvenient”. Pragmatists may call it “frustrating”. For the technologically savvy, it could spell disaster.

Add to the above scenario the fact that auto-teller machines (ATMs) and payment systems also do not work and you almost have a pandemic. This is but a small picture of the growing level of dependence on digital technology and its impact on both the business world and the world’s citizenry. I call it the digital impact.

In this first of a series, I will be looking at the impact of the digital world on aviation.


Digital Impact on the World of Aviation – Part 1

Disintermediation – the removal of intermediaries from a business process or function began in earnest with advent of the internet. There has however been a marked increase in this removal process in recent times. Travel agencies are among the worst hit, as holiday makers and air fare bargain hunters have turned to the internet for a wider variety of choice and its multiplicity of bargains. Today, most surf the internet for all their travel and/or holiday needs.

e-Ticketing – the electronic payment and issuing of airline tickets have become commonplace today. Indeed the process today is almost paperless, with e-ticket details on cell phones now being read at some major airports using specially designed scanners. I do recall being in transit at one of the major airports in the Caribbean islands some five years ago. The immigration officer could not be convinced that my e-ticket, printed on a strip of paper, was a valid ticket. He insisted that only a regular paper-issued airline ticket consisting of coupons and counterfoils would be acceptable. This scenario would be inconceivable at most of today’s airports.

Biometrics– whether for the issuance of a passport or for proper security checks, biometrics are growing in popularity. Biometric passports may be the only passports available in the immediate future as security concerns have been brought into sharp focus.

Whether you are flying through Dubai International Airport, Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson, London Heathrow, Singapore’s Changi Airport or Johannesburg’s OR Tambo Airport, we see and/or experience the digital impact.