If you have to ask, you probably are in the 1% by a large margin: Most people do not fly regularly. Some people have never flown at all. You would probably be surprised how often someone's flight with an airline is either their first or, in fact, only ever time they will do business with said airline.

If someone is flying occasionally, they probably don’t just have a carry on. They still will need to know where to pick up their bag.

They will still need to know if their gate has changed or whether their flight is delayed.

I wouldn't want a software install for a one-time business interaction. I'd expect maybe SMS updates for all of this anyways?

Unless you fly internationally. Text messaging is notoriously unreliable when roaming. Also if they send you a text, there is no guarantee that it isn’t dropped if it doesn’t reach you immediately. Push notifications are a lot more reliable over international data and wifi.

There have been numerous accounts where someone couldn’t use a credit card overseas because their bank tried to send them an SMS that they were suppose to reply to to verify a transaction.

Also, SMS cost a lot more at scale for the sender than mobile notifications.

SMS does not work so well inside planes...

In all the airports i was there were big screens telling you about arrivals and departures and where can you pick up your luggage.

So let’s say I fly out of a busy airport - I do I fly out of Atlanta the worlds busiest airport - you are really going to say that it’s more convenient to find your flight among all the ones that are landing than just looking at your phone?

But even then, you first need to know whether your bag is at Terminal South or Terminal North first.

I do that all fine with an Alaska web account and emailed boarding pass.

Does your boarding pass in your email automatically update with gate changes, boarding time changes, etc?

Is it really easier to dig through your email than just click on the app and your boarding pass show up? And since it knows that you’re going to probably scan it, the screen automatically lights up

Technically the "backend" has all that info. There's constant push and pull between apps and servers.

Delta will also notify travelers via SMS, Email... it's not app-only.

Are you really going to be constantly checking your email while you are at the airport when they are notifying you of delays and gate changes?

It’s a much better experience just to look at my boarding ticket in my Apple Wallet that is updated.