36-38 INDUSTRY air 2/12/08 15:06 Page 38
38 industry report – air
air travel no-frills bookings
5:7. THE MARKET APPEARS TO BE EVENLY SHARED
AMONG THE MAIN PLAYERS IN THE LOW-COST SECTOR
5:7. Which no-frills airlines do you book with? Please tick as
many as apply 2008
EasyJet 23%
Ryanair 22%
Flybe 21%
14%
Bmibaby 20% 23%
Other 14%
5:8. Has GDS surcharging affected your air ticket booking
LOW-COST
20%
decisions? AIRLINES HAVE
Yes 17%
TAILORED THEIR
22%
No 83%
PRODUCTS TO
21%
5:9. What percentage do no-frills airlines constitute of your
BUSINESS
overall air bookings?
TRAVELLERS,
less than 5% 2007: 37% 2008: 29%
5-10% 2007: 28% 2008: 27%
WITH CHEAPER
■ EasyJet ■ Bmibaby
10%+ 44%
FARES AND
■ Ryanair ■ Other
FREQUENT
■ Flybe
5:10. Is that increasing?
Yes 74%
FLIGHTS
No 26% L50480 the point that if low cost airlines are serious about
developing business from the corporate sector they need
to invest in making inventory accessible via all
platforms, not just web based applications.
“TMCs continue to be committed to GDSs, probably
because of the high level of multi-functionality”, he
said. “We need to build workable business models with
GDS providers.” EasyJet did this at the start of this year,
but their charges were so high that the Guild of Travel
Management Companies urged its members to boycott
booking tickets off the GDS.
Yet despite all the negative publicity a massive 83% of
respondents said the surcharging made no difference to
their booking decisions (5.8)
Hobday continued: “Many self-booking tools are
powered by both GDS and web, so low-costs must also
raise the bar with web capability and provide XML
links.”
Turning to low-cost
Carly Brear, easyJet’s UK commercial manager stated
that in the current economic climate, with travel
budgets coming under increased scrutiny, many more
business travellers are turning to low-cost airlines.
“Over the years, low-cost airlines have tailored their
products and services for business travellers. In many
cases the fares offered are substantially cheaper than
legacy airlines, and are coupled with the frequency of
flights that many business passengers need,”she said.
Ian Windsor, managing director of HRG, declared the
no-frills carriers here to stay: “We are not going to get
rid of them. They are an integral part of our business
now, and we should embrace them. The booking process
may be more time-consuming than booking via the GDS
but we can still obtain the necessary MI.”
Windsor added that low-cost carriers had made
business travel more interesting and brought a new
dynamic to the market. L52159
ttgbusiness.com ❖ industry report 2008
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