Airline loyalties weaken as flying habits change

Airline loyalties weaken as flying habits change

Call me loyal? Well, figures released from House of Travel today suggest not. Instead they show Kiwis becoming less and less loyal when choosing their airlines.

In the last five years the proportion of people using one airline to get to Asia and another airline back has more than trebled (from 11% to 40%) while the figure has almost doubled on trips to and from Britain and Europe (from 13% to 23%).

House of Travel Retail Director Brent Thomas says the trend is also evident in short haul and domestic travel. In the past year 42% of return internal flights involved more than one airline, up from 30% five years ago.

“With the proliferation of airlines and increased choice, old loyalties are weakening as travellers mix and match their airlines for the best price,” says Mr Thomas

“Based on current trends we think by 2012 more than half of return domestic air travel could be mixed and matched.”

Mr Thomas says the growth of the internet has been key. Between the beginning of 2008 and the end of 2009 the number of online flight bookings more than trebled, and continues to grow.

House of Travel has recently launched mixandmatch.co.nz as a response to this.

“In the past, people have had to search around multiple websites for themselves. Now FareFinder – the search engine behind mixandmatch.co.nz - gives almost instant access to the best published price on any destination on any airline over the next six months” finished Mr Thomas.

ENDS

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