Airline passengers bring on average two to three electronic devices with them on their travels, but the items they pack change according to whether their trip is for business or pleasure.
New research has shown that 88% of people bring their smartphone with them when they are travelling for work with 82% also lugging their laptop along when on business.
The numbers bringing their smartphone drop – but only very slightly – on personal trips with 85% bringing their mobile, while that small extra 3% choose to go “off the grid” and leave their mobile behind.
The survey, carried out by the travel research specialists m1nd-set, also reveals that less than half of airline passengers bring their laptop with them when on holidays.
Some switch over to a tablet, with 51% choosing the convenience and smaller size of an iPad, or something similar, for personal travel.
Just one in six people packed an e-reader like a Kindle for their holidays, with many presumably favouring a good old-fashioned book, or relying on their tablet or mobile.
MP3 players also seem to be becoming much rarer – with just 12-14% of all travellers bringing one, again because so many use other devices as a jack of all trades to play music, stream video, and get online.
The study also looked at people’s web habits when in airports and what passengers were most likely to be doing with their time online while waiting.
Almost everybody (98%) surveyed said they used their time in departures and arrivals catching up on emails, text messages and checking in on social media.
In all, 47% said they searched for information on their flight and 41% trawled the web for information about their destination. A quarter of people sat back and listened to music or watched films online, the survey also showed.
The company behind the research said only small numbers of people were using their mobile devices and laptops to find out about pre-flight shopping and that airports could be doing much more to tap into that market.
