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In July, CivicScience data showed that 43% of U. S. adults plan to cut back on spending. 1 This figure was up from 40% last July. With budget in mind, what are Americans doing to cut costs, especially air costs? CivicScience insights 3 macro trends that are shaping the industry.
When it comes to buying a plane ticket, price is of the utmost importance. When asked what is more important when booking a flight, the airline or the price, only 12% of respondents who buy flights answered “the airline”, compared to 37% answered “the value”, for a small majority (51%). The airline and the value of the flight were the same.
It’s no surprise, then, that the majority of consumers who buy a flight start searching for it by conducting a general internet search (22%), using a travel booking site like Expedia or Booking. com (26%), or comparing costs on a flight aggregation site like Google Flights or Skyscanner (9%). Less than a third of them go directly to an airline’s website and, whether or not they are a small percentage (3%) continue to call the airline to make reservations.
People who start with a search on the Internet or on a booking site are the most concerned about value, and almost a fraction say that value alone is the decisive factor when purchasing a flight.
Join the conversation: When planning a vacation, do you use discounts to book plane tickets, hotel rooms, or car rentals?
Consumers have a wide and ever-increasing diversity of roles when it comes to finding the most productive tariff. Electronic travel bookings are one of them, where users book directly through and can come with add-ons such as hotels and rental cars.
In a survey of six prominent (and some less popular) online booking companies, Expedia emerged as the most sensible site among other people who flew in the past six months. Priceline and Travelocity are also some of the most productive options. Lesser-known site Skiplagged, which provides answers to help consumers get the cheapest flight (to the dismay of some major airlines), only accounts for 6% of recent users. However, this figure increases to 17% among Generation Z.
Travel booking sites have been around for years: William Shatner did classified ads for Priceline in 1998. The same goes for flight aggregation sites, such as Kayak, which locate the cheapest flights and redirect users to airline websites. Today, Google Flights is the leader in this category among recent travelers, while Skyscanner is the least used.
Take our survey: How likely, if any, are you to use a third-party online site to book a flight electronically in the future?
Budget airlines are making their mark on the industry. Looking at some of the major players in the reduction category, Southwest is the leader, unsurprisingly: 71% of travelers have used the airline at some point, and 54% are more likely to use it again. Frontier and Spirit each attracted about two out of five travelers, but those airlines also have the highest percentages of dissatisfied consumers. The newcomer Breeze Airways, the least used, turned out to have done quite well among consumers who gave it a try.
The existing festival for buyers is fierce (and confusing) and airlines, booking sites, and others in the industry struggle to get by. Although knowledge shows that consumer behavior is incredibly varied when it comes to buying flights, it’s clear that they’re ahead of the price, with many relying on web searches and third-party providers, as well as cheap airlines, to get where they need to go. Expect those trends to be present in the upcoming 2024 holiday season.
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