Air Travel Trends

Many would agree that air travel has peaked in various parts of the world and whilst aviation is still in its infancy in the developing world, certain realities will impose restriction to how prolific it can become, with Climate Change posing one of these issues and challenges. I grew up in a generation where air travel was cheap, accessible and no one thought twice about hopping on a flight to far flung places for a meeting or a weekend.

Nowadays and looking into the future, I believe that there are factors that are changing the shape of future air travel, I believe that environmental and economic factors will drive the cost of air travel up, and the days of cheap flights, that only reflect the economic cost of air travel, are nearing an end. So I wanted to capture the mood out there in relation to shifts in global travel needs and trends within the backdrop of ever gathering clouds of the economic storm; to assess if there were patterns and to try to rationalize what this could mean for aviation, from both airports’ and airlines’ perspectives, but more importantly, what air travel experts, our passengers, are telling us they want.

First and foremost, I would like to thank all the people who took the time to respond to my survey. The respondents come from all over the globe, covering a wide spectrum of demographics and diverging needs, drivers and expectations from air travel.

On the whole, there appears to be a consensus that the need for air travel is alive and well out there. This was a very reassuring message to receive. People want and/or need to use air travel, for both business and leisure. The majority of respondents were Gen Xers (51%), followed by Baby Boomers (46%), predominantly hailing from the West; mainly UK and US.

And whilst using averages is always fraught with risk, I do think that one can distill some key trends or prevailing views, which can help airport operators and airlines to design and shape products and services that are attuned to current consumer needs, expectations and desires.

21st century air travelers are experienced, savvy and they know what they want. This was clear from the responses to passengers’ expectations of airports: 48% expect better, more interactive services and facilities. There was feedback for airlines as well. Here are some direct quotes:

“Airline technology-driven solutions must be matched at the airport”

“Effective delay management”

“Attention to arrivals processes as well as departures”

“Carbon footprint offsetting”

“Customer service must improve/better standards”

“Better integration with local travel services”

“Do not leave me sitting on the tarmac”

“Proper queue management for check-in and at the gate for boarding”

“Hate all exclusives, e.g. Ryanair. We want technological innovations but not to be forced to pay for them”

On the other hand a significant proportion of respondents (52%) ticked the box marked: I only want to be able to access my flight, with no other expectations. This is a missed opportunity for the industry, as airports are infrastructure providers and a critical link in the experience chain. For passengers, even those who only want to access their flights and get moving, airports can truly make or break this experience – the queues at Heathrow during the liquid ban in August 2006 stand testament to this on one extreme. I hasten to add that, in my opinion, regulation is not the answer, as it may detract from customer benefit by driving management focus to meet a regulator’s targets – as opposed to meeting passengers’ needs and delivering service.

I’m an individualist, and complete believer in tailor-made solutions – completely opposed to mass-produced solutions that force all customers to ‘fit a standard mould’. Life is too short for that. From the services and facilities passengers indicated that they would like to see, their answers show that they share this sentiment. Asking for more technology driven services, putting some element of  control over the journey back with the customer, where they can access services on demand. That’s not to say that passengers are looking for exclusive luxurious travel, but reading through some of the quotes the message seems to be flexible, technology-driven solutions married with good value for money products.

The drivers behind each decision are very personal and may seem random, sometimes people make decisions based on an intuition, a hunch, or at other times through careful consideration of  hard facts and figures. More often than not though, it’s a combination of these as well as practical factors and needs. So it was interesting to see what people listed as key factors influencing their purchasing decision:

51% of respondents said that, when traveling for business purposes, they make flight selection related decisions based on carriers/airports that provide the right timetable and high frequency to their destination. 35% said that cost is a critical factor that they take into account when making their decision. Access to lounges was not listed as a critical factor.

When it comes to leisure and kicking back, 53% kept a close eye on cost, with 42% stating that the destination was more important. it was interesting to see that luxury was not a deciding factor.

Trying to distill a few clear messages to take away from this survey, I can see two main areas: for one, the public needs to learn more about climate change and aviation’s external costs (but more on that in my next blog); for another, I would say that in their fight over market share and market domination, the airlines have fallen prey to over-specialisation; flagship carriers focussed on premium, going to the extent of creating a strange hybrid product called ‘premium economy’, and low cost carriers have gone to the other extreme where anything beyond the ‘seat’, including basics such as checking in a bag, is deemed ‘an extra’. This has marginalised the average passenger or family, who are looking for value for money, and not necessarily ‘cheap’ air travel. The results of the survey clearly demonstrate that a relatively large proportion of users feel that customer service is failing in the aviation industry, and would like to see improvements made on this front. It was interesting to see several comments to the effect that low cost should not mean low quality, which I wholeheartedly endorse.

BA’s record loss announcement last week indicates that relying on one ‘cash cow’; premium, point to point, doesn’t always pay, and there may be some lessons for all stakeholders in aviation to take away from this, in that it may be time to consider providing good value for money, extending high levels of service across all cabins equally.