Smartphones untether users from PCs and are changing the game for
passengers; checking flight status and length of security lines, for instance, is only a few
phone buttons away. Subscribers of social media sites such as Facebook and MySpace are
using these platforms to alert people about flight disruptions and airport ground holds.
Usage of mobile phones to shop for best-value flights, upgrade seats, book hotels, and order
taxis also has become mainstream. In many cases, passengers have faster, better, and more
accurate information than the airline and its employees. The smartphone has greatly
enhanced the passenger’s ability to request and acquire useful information and run rich
third-party applications that deliver real-time information about the operator’s environment
on a relatively seamless basis. Among the many Mobility 2.0 applications, the following
solutions are commonly used via mobile phones: