Senior Russian and airline executives attending last month’s Moscow SKYSERVICE 2016 Conference were left in no doubt by CiR Managing Director Garry Stasiulevicuis that there is still much to be done to improve ‘Traveller attitudes towards the inflight offer’

 

Stasiulevicuis drew on the leading research company’s sample findings from 20,000 international travellers for responses to questions on purchase incidence, plus approximately 1,000 in-depth interviews providing detailed feedback on the perception of the inflight offer.

 

 

He started by qualifying the comparative size of the airline market against other sales channels based on 2014 Generation Research figures. These showed airline DF&TR sales of $2.92bn and representing 4.6% of the mix, as he pointedly remarked that these are ‘ten times smaller’ than the $36.62bn (57.7%) total at airports.

 

PENETRATION LEVELS ARE STILL LOW

Stasiulevicuis also noted the fast changing approaches to actual sales, with the meeting of the ’old world’ of cabin trolley selling and the ‘new’ digital interfaces such as phones and tablets.

 

The bottom line problem remains for the whole industry when it comes to penetration levels, he said, with 52% of international travellers never entering airport duty free shops.

 

 

The reasons given by those surveyed include the offer as ‘not relevant’, while respondents also said they were busy with other activities such as F&B, reading or digital phone or laptop activities.

 

Still quoting Generation research he added that the value perception of duty free was also questioned, along with concerns about carrying purchases, while respondents also pointed to stores as being confusing, not so tempting and too busy. Time constraints ahead of their flights were also cited as another concern.

 

PRE-TRAVEL PROMOTION

Stasiulevicuis said there is extensive scope to increase pre travel exposure of the business and particularly since 40% of the passengers asked said they couldn’t recall ‘anything specific’ about the inflight offer.

 

Similarly interesting was his important observation that of the 70% of passengers who book online, only 18% recalled seeing any offers. All of which is a bit frustrating, considering passengers are clearly open to inflight sales, with Stasiulevicuis pointing to more than 30% who said they actually would have purchased something if they had been aware of the offer.

 

 

 

Of those who actually did make a purchase, an encouraging 70% apparently perceived the offer to be ‘excellent or very good’. However, only 15% of ‘non-buyers’ said the same.

 

Perceptions of the inflight offer are also very mixed, with just 16% telling CiR that ‘pricing is excellent’, while up to 19% told the research company that they are ‘not interested in the range offered’. Equally significantly, around 40% of those surveyed said ‘there is no difference to the airport’.

 

Stasiulevicuis then turned his microscope on the digitally connected traveller and revealed that 80% of these travellers admit to doing some kind of research online and 50% admit to being regular social media users.

 

 

More than 50% also said they would act upon a message received during the booking process, suggesting there may be promotional opportunities at this touch point.

 

More than 70% of these connected travellers say they book their tickets online and 50% say that they also check in online, so creating further opportunities for retailers to connect.

 

Lastly, amongst those who do buy goods inflight ‘up to 20% reasoned that they buy to avoid airport shop queues, while 13% said purchasing inflight ‘reduces anxiety over allowances’, while one in five said they take advantage of buying onboard ‘due to time pressures’ within the airport environment.

 

Stasiulevicuis finished his quick-fire excellent presentation by showing some examples of digital promotions by some airlines and their concessionaires, including British Airways, Emirates, KLM and Virgin Atlantic.