News and Research

What Does Your Airfare Actually Buy?
New York Times
Revenue from fees and other payments is “growing every year because it works,” said Jay Sorensen, the president of IdeaWorksCompany, a consulting firm that focuses on the airline industry.  According to a report his company released this fall, the airlines made more than $82 billion in ancillary revenue — fees from passengers and other payments from partners like credit card companies and hotels — in 2017. That is about $46 billion more than five years ago. The report, sponsored by CarTrawler, a company that provides car rental recommendations on many airlines’ websites, used data released by 66 airlines last year to extrapolate the likely ancillary revenue of 184 carriers worldwide.