Abstract
The primary objective of the study was to determine the influence of consumer age on
passengers’ level of technology readiness for using mobile applications in the airline industry
and for adopting them in South Africa. Primary data was gathered from 315 respondents using
a structured questionnaire. The sample included South African citizens who had travelled using
an airline either nationally or internationally over a twelve-month period. Hierarchical
regression analysis was applied to test the proposed hypotheses in the study. The findings
indicate that airline mobile application adoption is influenced by technology readiness where
consumer age is shown to have a negative relationship with technology readiness and with
subsequent airline mobile application adoption. As a result, airline and airport companies must
ensure that a structured research approach is followed whereby insights on the technology
readiness levels of the respective target markets are incorporated into any mobile application
launch or communication strategy aimed at increasing the adoption of mobile applications in
the airline industry.