5 Reasons why it’s essential to keep passengers’ smartphones charged and connected.

The pandemic has made the world even more smartphone-centric, with major travel and retail hubs striving to make their operations as contactless as possible. We all know how stressful travel can be, and airports come with their own added baggage!  Having a flat or low phone battery is only going to make matters worse.

It’s at the airport where the smartphone becomes indispensable. Of course, free WiFi is available at many  airports - most people can happily manage without it. But they can't manage with a low or flat smartphone battery..  

Here are FIVE reasons why keeping passengers’ phones charged and connected is essential:

Do you want passengers to use your airport app? 
As Gatwick say in their marketing, “Get Gatwick in the palm of your hand and turn your smartphone into a trusty companion to get you to and through the airport hassle-free”.  Airports want the opportunity to start a direct dialogue with their customers and make money from the journey through the added value the apps offer.  In exchange, they provide live updates about your flight, security information and times, discounted offers and even collecting pre-ordered food.

Using electronic tickets/boarding passes
A fast, convenient and hygienic way to show documents.  But more importantly, an environmentally friendly way to reduce paper waste that avoids unnecessary printouts.  For example, when flying EasyJet and using their app you can save up to eight boarding passes per flight and you don’t need to be online to access them.  One-third of boarding passes were digital in 2019 so that percentage will have grown exponentially post-pandemic.

To pay for things
 The adoption of mobile payments like Apple and Google Pay has exploded.  People no longer carry a wallet or purse as often as they used to.  Not constrained by the £100 contactless limit and more secure than a card, mobile payments are the future.  The global market penetration of Apple Pay is significant and the UK leads the way with over 60% of Apple users who use it.  So keep passenger spending easy and simple.

Stay connected
Make calls, email, message work, family and friends.  And of course, stay connected on social media.  It’s what our devices were designed to do.  Video calls are the new normal, 1 in 3 people have made one in the last month and 7 in 10 UK adults are making them weekly.  But they drain your phone battery.  A regular call uses approximately 0.33% of battery a minute whereas a video call uses somewhere between 1-2%, up to six times more drain!  Using social media combines the battery drain double whammy of video sharing and location-based services.  Do you want influencers to share how much they love the airport experience on TikTok?  You better make sure they can keep their phone charged.

Entertainment
It’s inevitable that flights might be delayed, need rescheduling or even be subject to cancellation – but what do passengers want to do when there’s a hiccup to travel plans? Most likely, watch their favourite TV shows or games for kids.  Keeping devices charged not only removes low battery anxiety but also helps keep passengers entertained and distracted from the worry caused by disruption.  

So if you want happy passengers, install ChargeBox stations!