i actually view cashless as a good thing after working on the digitalization of retail banks. there's a few reasons when we talk broader than just the immediate time of transaction. businesses can report their information more accurately since card transactions post in real time, whereas cash needs to be tallied up in batch at the end of a flight, end of the day, etc. cash also forces businesses to include a loss buffer. someone mentioned theft, organizations this large who deal with cash often include a 10-15% loss buffer to account for this, they just assume someone's stealing. lastly, it's safer. now in a brick and mortar store, they run the risk of getting held up and robbed at gunpoint. i would say the likelihood of that happening mid-flight or at an airport terminal isn't likely. but remember, when you pay cash, it physically has to be transported somewhere. to a central processing center. a bank. you know all those brinks security armored trucks driving around? that's what they do. and there's a good reason why they're so heavily protected. digital transactions does away with it.
currently it does inconvenience a small proportion of the population, and statistics on mobile and online bank adoption actually show that this group gets smaller every year. imo the benefits at the aggregate level are definitely worth it.