Overview: The International Air Transport Association (IATA)’s 2026 Global Passenger Survey shows that biometric and AI technologies are increasingly becoming standard components of the passenger experience. According to reports on the survey by media outlets such as Voyages d'Affaires, 58% of surveyed passengers have experienced biometric services during their travels, an increase from approximately 50% in the previous year. Additionally, 49% of passengers have used AI to plan their trips, and passenger acceptance of digital services such as AI-powered customer service continues to rise.
According to Voyages d'Affaires, a 2026 survey outlines three main trends shaping the traveler experience: the continued expansion of biometric and digital passport usage; the increasing role of AI in trip planning; and growing traveler dissatisfaction with complex entry procedures. Specifically, 58% of travelers have already experienced biometric travel, compared to approximately 50% the previous year; and 49% of surveyed travelers have used AI to plan their trips, with "searching for flights to a specific destination" being the most common use.
The survey also points out that the widespread acceptance of AI and biometric technologies among travelers stems from the tangible improvements they bring to the way travelers plan and experience air travel. This acceptance is driven by the enhanced experience, rather than mere curiosity about new technologies. The key takeaway for product development is that travelers have a simple standard for evaluating digital services: "Does it save time, reduce queuing, and minimize form-filling?" If a technology fails to meet these criteria, it is likely to be met with resistance.
On the planning side, AI helps travelers shorten the decision-making process from "wanting to travel" to "selecting a flight," and the fact that nearly half of travelers use this feature indicates that it has become a mainstream behavior. On the service side, the increasing acceptance of AI-powered customer service and digital assistants means that travelers are willing to entrust frequent, minor tasks such as rebooking and inquiries to automated services, leaving complex cases to human agents. For airlines, this provides a demand-side basis for the large-scale deployment of generative AI customer service: travelers do not reject machine services, but they do reject poorly performing machine services when they cannot find a human to assist them.
The third key finding of the survey warrants particular attention from airports and airlines: despite the increasing adoption of biometric clearance, passenger dissatisfaction with the complexity of immigration procedures continues to grow. The varying and often inconsistent immigration requirements across different countries are offsetting some of the benefits of faster clearance processes. This suggests that the focus of service design should not solely be on the speed of "facial recognition at the gate," but should also include proactively providing information about immigration requirements and offering pre-trip reminders, thereby minimizing the impact of policy uncertainties before passengers depart.
The jump from 50% to 58% indicates that biometric technology has moved past the "trial phase" and is now evolving into a default option. The 49% penetration rate of AI-powered planning suggests that passenger behavior is being reshaped by AI assistants, and airlines need to prepare their distribution and service interfaces for these "machine guests." For airports and airlines, the next stage of competition may be more focused on the overall smoothness of the entire journey, from arrival to transfer to departure, rather than showcasing individual technological advancements – and this is precisely the direction that the three main findings of the survey point towards.