Two surveys commissioned by GuestLogix, one involving over 3,500 participants from Germany, the United States and Hong Kong, and the other an online poll of over 150 from Singapore, suggest airlines need to address ground transport sales as the most viable and profitable onboard opportunity in the sale of airport transfer tickets, such as bus and train tickets, and share ride and limousine services in destination cities. The latest survey also found that a high number of respondents were comfortable with making onboard purchases, and were already doing so - 63% bought items onboard during their last flight.
GuestLogix estimates that the top 20 Asia-based airlines, by passenger trips, serving their top seven busiest airports could generate over US$115 million in annual incremental profits from onboard transport ticket sales on just 10% of their passengers buying tickets during flight. The survey results lead GuestLogix to believe that the onboard sales conversion rate could be eight times greater as up to 80% of the Singapore respondents said they would buy transport tickets during flight because of convenience.
The Singapore results support earlier global omnibus research undertaken by Ipsos SA which revealed that most flyers would find an onboard service that sells destination related items would be beneficial in terms of convenience. That research also confirmed that travelers are most interested in event tickets, entertainment and transportation offers.
The surveys send a clear message for airlines that broadening their in-flight offerings to include ticket sales will greatly help offset the pressures of the economic downturn and generate important new profit streams. Most travellers are open to purchasing items in-flight to improve their travel experience including the possibility of ticket sales onboard. This offers a much greater profit margin than duty-free or food and beverage sales, without the inventory headaches.
Ground transport service providers are constantly looking for ways to improve customer engagement so their customers can experience a more seamless journey. Many providers have chosen to locate ticketing kiosks at airports but nothing comes close to the convenience of onboard ticket selling. Key providers have now joined GuestLogix in the launch of the OnTouchTM Ground Connections service which provides ground transfers during flight to 50 of the world’s busiest airports.
In an earlier newsletter, we noted that travel extensions could help the airline industry tap into a global market representing nearly US$120 billion in ground transportation revenues. OnTouchTM Ground Connections is now the quickest way to do that while improving the service level and the travel experience for all. The new service is available exclusively through GuestLogix’ proprietary Mobile Virtual StoreTM, an end-to-end onboard retail transaction platform that enables carriers to establish and grow new profitable revenues.
OnTouch™ is GuestLogix’ new onboard merchandising service, which allows airlines and vendor companies to move beyond the sale of physical items to retailing innovative products and services onboard, such as catalogue shopping with post-flight delivery, airport transfers, entertainment tickets, phone and web offerings, and concierge support.
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