Low-Cost Carriers vs. Full Service Carriers
At a time when airlines are trying to streamline their sales channels and bring customers on to their own platforms as much as possible, the search tool on airlines’ Android apps has not been exploited enough yet. videc’s App in the Sky examines this by breaking down each leg of the journey to find out what kind of user experience airline apps – 22 low-cost carriers (LCCs) and 48 full-service carriers (FSCs) – offer. Apps that don’t support native flight search naturally lose out on offering a seamless shopping and booking experience. This leakage is visible across prominent airline brands.
ONE-WAY FLIGHT SEARCH
ONE-WAY FLIGHT SEARCHFull marks to LCCs for this one. At 100%, they fulfilled the basic criterion for an one-way flight search option in 3Q19. In contrast, 98% for traditional airline apps featured an one-way flight search. The remaining 2% redirected users to their websites, which hampers the native app shopping experience.
Base: 70 airlines | View Methodology
RETURN JOURNEY FLIGHT SEARCH
RETURN JOURNEY FLIGHT SEARCHEven today, native flight search is not supported by all airline Android apps. Search for return journeys across app stood at 95% for LCCs and 98% for FSCs in 3Q19, indicating room for improvement in closing the loop with one-way searches.
Base: 70 airlines | View Methodology
SAME DAY FLIGHT SEARCH
SAME DAY FLIGHT SEARCHTo ensure their flights are operating at maximum capacity, 82% of the LCC apps and 73% for the FSCs apps offered same-day booking functionality in 3Q19.
Base: 70 airlines | View Methodology
MULTI-CITY FLIGHT SEARCH
MULTI-CITY FLIGHT SEARCHAt 23%, LCCs are not doing much to offer their users the option to search for and therefore book multi-city routes via their apps. This stood at 44% for the FSCs though. This could be because the traditional carriers are also flying international routes and therefore feel the need to incorporate the multi-city search option for their users.
Base: 70 airlines | View Methodology
