IBS Software survey identifies the shortcomings of airline retail

Yesterday, IBS Software released new survey results highlighting the shortcomings of airline retail in its current form. The data identifies multiple areas where airlines are failing to capitalise on ancillary revenue and points towards the industries setting expectations of the online buying process. With 83 per cent of respondents planning to fly to a leisure destination in the next six months, the value in refining the experience to align with customer expectations is self-evident.

As discussed by Paul Byrne, VP iFly Retail at IBS Software, updating is crucial to remaining competitive.

“As more and more industries invest in Amazon-esque tactics to compete for consumer spend, it’s important airlines don’t pass up the opportunity on the table.” 

Key insights from the survey include:

• 93 per cent of consumers would buy services like excursions and car rental from their airline in they could.
• 56 per cent of recent flyers would buy additional services from an airline if the booking and checkout online shopping experience was closer to that of fashion retailers and online food shops.
• 36 per cent of those asked said booking a flight online is more time consuming and complicated than other online retail experiences.
• 10 per cent of recent flyers said they would book all elements of a holiday with their airline if they could.
• 24 per cent of people surveyed said the main benefit of booking multiple elements of their trip in one transaction would be having all confirmation details in one place
• 19 per cent of people surveyed said the main benefit of booking multiple elements of their trip in one transaction would be having one provider to deal with if something goes wrong.

The survey covers 2,000 consumers who have travelled by air for leisure in the last 18 months with 1,000 respondents from the US and UK respectively.

Article by Jess Brownlow

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