The number of mobile barcoded boarding passes issued by the global airline industry is expected to grow from 280 million this year to 480 million in 2013, according to a new whitepaper from Juniper Research. Data from “Scan and Go: Transport Ticketing on the Mobile” suggests this means the global airline industry will increase the number of mobile boarding passes it issues by 71% in the next two years.
Juniper Research defines a mobile ticketing user as “someone who stores a ticket on their mobile device for later redemption” at the point of travel. The purchase of the ticket does not need to have been initiated on the mobile phone. Currently, Juniper says it is more than likely that the main point of purchase for mobile tickets is currently either online at an e-commerce website, via a telephone call center or alternatively at a physical ticket outlet or kiosk.
N. America, W. Europe, Far East/China Dominate Market
Dividing the global airline mobile barcoded boarding pass market into eight key regions, Juniper predicts that in 2013, North America will represent the largest share of the market, a little less than half. Western Europe will closely follow, with the Far East and China providing a share slightly smaller than that of Western Europe.
Of the remaining markets, the rest of Asia/Pacific will provide a slightly larger base of users than Latin America, Central/Eastern Europe, and Indian Subcontinent.
Smartphone Growth Spurs Mobile Boarding Pass Growth
Juniper says a growing number of players entering the mobile boarding pass market from a variety of approaches, as some are venture capital funded start-ups, some are mobile network operators (MNOs) diversifying and others come from telecom, mobile, smart card, POS or e-ticketing backgrounds.
In addition, with the global profusion of smartphone apps, developers seek to add ticketing to their portfolios and MNOs themselves want to offer integrated ticketing, coupon and wider mobile commerce services as they look to increase their offerings to attract and retain subscribers. As a result, MNOs either build ticketing solutions in-house or contract out to other vendors in the groups that we identify above.
Mobile Ticketing to Reach 750M Users by 2015
The total global mobile ticketing user base (all uses, not just boarding passes) will exceed 750 million consumers by 2015, according to another recent whitepaper from Juniper Research. Data from “Ticketing Goes Mobile” indicates this will equal 12.7% of all global mobile users, close to triple the predicted mobile ticketing penetration rate of 4.5% for 2011.
