CAPÍTULO 2: MARCO TEÓRICO
5.3. NUEVOS O RENOVADOS AGENTES
5.3.3. Otros activismos
In order to better be able to describe (at a later point) the characteristics of people who consider flexible tickets as a viable option, the booking behavior of respondents was analyzed. This is of special importance for airlines when it comes to marketing a new product, since the knowledge of preferred booking channels as well as advance booking periods allows for a more precise positioning of the product.
The vast majority of the sample (79%) stated that they are usually booking flights on their own. People who delegate the booking process primarily comprise business travelers (in this group, 34% of all travelers do not book their tickets themselves).
76% of the people who book their flights themselves use an internet-powered sales channel. While 41% directly purchase their tickets on the website of an airline, 35% use online travel agencies (such as Expedia, Opodo or others). Only 22% of people who are personally taking care of buying their flights make use of the services of traditional travel agents. A small fraction (3%) uses other channels such as tour operator hotlines or airline sales offices. When asked to judge their perceived self-confidence with regard to always selecting the best available flight, the average rating on a 7-point Likert-scale was 2.8 (cf. Figure 69).
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
0 1 2 3 more than
three
Share of business or leisure travelers with a certain amount of accompanying passengers (n=355)
business travelers leisure travelers
Figure 69
Travelers w entrust a t company w responden website of the flight. S where the agent, 51%
themselves this group website of the actual still describ 16% of the on the fligh
9: Self-book
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f the airline Summing u
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% of all fl s are book
are travel an airline ( flight, 58%
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ng channel a g the best av
ht booking p all responde
ts (24% of a ves to book ne travel ag rectly booke another pers persons w a travel ag the compan n online trav pondent gro the flight se
roup, howe f. Figure 70
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all respond k their flights gent as a sa ed by travel
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(8%). Whe elegate the cess as “hig hat they do
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Especially LCC heavily rely on the advance booking time as a criterion to distinguish between booking requests from business travelers and leisure travelers in their price discrimination policies. As shown in Figure 71, this criterion indeed is well suited as an approximation to identify the trip purpose and the underlying willingness-to-pay. In the sample, there has been a significant difference between the groups (χ²-test, p< 0.001) as well as a strong correlation between the likelihood to book at a late time and the trip purpose ‘business’ (Cramérs V: 0.38): While 67% of all business travelers book their trips within the last month prior to departure, this is only done so by 25% of leisure travelers.
Figure 71: Advance booking periods of business and leisure travelers in the sample When asked about the importance of certain criteria with regard to the selection of their flight, respondents overall selected the price as the most important criterion (average rating 1.78 on a scale where 1 corresponds to ‘very important’ and 7 stands for ‘not important at all’), followed by the connection type (non-stop or connection flight: 1.88) and the offered schedule times (2.10). However, as expected, significant differences were found between leisure and business travelers. While the former rated the price in average with 1.6, business travelers assigned a rating of only 2.80, giving higher priorities to other criteria, such as the convenience of the schedule, which has been rated the highest by this group (Anova, p < 0.001). Furthermore, significant differences with regard to the importance of the price were found based on a person’s affinity for using LCC. Respondents who used LCC for at least 2/3 of their flights exhibited an even higher price sensibility (1.39) than respondents who used network carriers for the majority of their flights (2.09). An overview of all criteria is given in Figure 72.
0%
10%
20%
30%
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50%
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in the last week prior to
departure
between one week and one month prior to departure
between one week and three months
prior to departure
more than three months
prior to departure
Don't know
Share of business and leisure travelers who book their ticket within a certain time prior to departure (n=356)
business travelers leisure travelers
F Non-stop fl start their relevant se consists of
• peo while only 1 regional air Of particula respondent the airport network air
Figure 72: Im lights with
flight selec et). Howeve
irect flights ts who con e of network en conside A more deta
ople who do enna or Mu riers as wel pondents w er, only 52%
n flights with 18% of resp rports which ar interest ts who are in order to rlines in thei
mportance o k airlines is er direct fli ailed analys o not live i unich) and
ls as of who already
% consider d h network a pondents st h are one ho
with regard willing to ac profit from ir relevant s
of various cr rlines are t ess (71% o hardly a dif ork airlines
r low-cost the fact th ights from sis of this
n the catch therefore use LCC f direct flights airlines are tated that th our further a d to the la ccept one h
lower LCC set.
riteria in the the most co of travelers
fference bet as a poss competitor at almost o network a group has hment area often cann or more tha s with netwo
a viable op hey also co
away than t tter two gr hour of add C fares also
flight selec onsidered o
include th tween the a sible option s (68%). E ne third of irlines in t shown tha a of a majo ot use dire an 66% of t
ork airlines ption for 31 nsider flight the nearest oups is the itional journ accepted c
ction proces option, whe his flight ty amount of p n and the Even worse
all respond their decisi at it on the or network ect flights their flights.
(p<0.001).
1% of all re ts with LCC airport (cf.
e fact that ney time on connection
ss
en travelers ype in their people who C that serve Figure 73).
Figu As long as overall sam desire to f responden preference (39% of th regard to f their needs fly only with nts). Within e has been f e total sam flying with s (cf. Figure
Figu 71%
n-stop flight w twork airline f he nearest airp
sidered fligh adheres to ot care with
h particular the sample found: resp mple) were a
a particular e 74).
ure 74: Impo with a airlines is t e, a good m pondents wh also the gro r airline, as
ortance of fly 68%
top flight with rom the neare
airport
nt Set: con
ndents; multip
he flight sele safety stan rier they ar the concern match betwe ho use LCC oup that sho s long as th
ple answers p
ection proce dards, 70%
e flying. Th n about saf een reporte C for more th
owed the la he price an
particular a 31%
on flight with k airline from arest airport
light type
possible, n=35
ess (relevan
% of traveler he main rea fety standar ed behavior
han 66% of argest indiff nd the sche
airline rs within the ason for the rds (18% o r and stated
f their flights ference with edule meets
%
ight with a a regional