Passengers intend to fly more from 2023 onwards than they did prior to the pandemic, a new passenger insights report by aviation IT supplier Sita shows.
As recovery gathers pace, the study anticipates averages of 2.93 flights per passenger a year for business and 3.90 for leisure.
When weighing up whether to fly or not, the main barriers are ticket prices, health concerns and geopolitical risks.
Passengers also consider sustainability before they choose to fly.
Around half of passengers would value airports and airlines putting in place new IT solutions to support sustainability, such as monitoring airport environmental performance to reduce emissions and flight path optimisation to reduce fuel burn.
Almost all travellers would pay on average 11% of their ticket price to offset carbon emissions from their flight.
Asked if the air transport industry is doing enough to become more sustainable, more than half of passengers either think not, or don’t know, suggesting there is room for industry improvement in communicating sustainability initiatives and actions, according to the study.
Sita chief executive David Lavorel said: “It is exciting to see demand recovering and even surpassing pre-pandemic levels, not just for leisure but also for business travel.
“We are seeing that the technology-driven end-to-end passenger journey is becoming a reality, as the air transport community continues to digitalise its travel processes and industry operations, accelerated by the pandemic.
“We are also seeing that passengers are increasingly embracing mobile and touchless technologies across the journey, to make their travel as convenient and seamless as possible.
“The use of IT to help drive and sustain the recovery of air travel is vital today, and it is also critical to the post-pandemic digital journey of tomorrow.”