News & Research

The recovery of business travel is complex and largely unwritten. Online meeting technology continues to march ahead, company employees are still working from home, corporations are setting carbon reductions tied to business travel, and the airline industry still struggles to find firmer footing. Innovation and resilience saved airlines during the pandemic, and these same traits will allow airlines to adapt to the changes wrought by new communication technologies and carbon emission concerns. The Pandemic, Technology, and the Environment Are Changing Airline Business Travel is sponsored by global travel tech provider CarTrawler and focuses on the new category of premium leisure travel as a market offering tremendous potential to fill the business travel gaps that may persist.

Advice to Airline Managers – Don’t be Paralyzed by the 2022 Consumer Challenge is sponsored by global travel tech provider CarTrawler and was released today. The report includes a chart listing the Covid era change and cancellation policies for 25 leading global network and low cost carriers. The 14-page report by IdeaWorksCompany is a call to action to help savvy airlines navigate a path to better serve consumers and improve financial sustainability during this period:

1. Protect consumers from today’s travel uncertainty. For instance, Air Canada has no expiration date for Covid change and cancellation protections.
2. Improve clarity of fare restrictions. Low cost carriers typically do a better job than traditional airlines of presenting fare conditions.
3. Allow friends and families to pool frequent flyer points. Singapore Airlines now allows family members to aggregate frequent flyer miles.
4. Promote flexible holiday packages. EasyJet holidays provides a good example of a thorough and well-conceived policy for consumers.
5. Be more generous and kind to your consumers. Icelandair will fly passengers delayed by mandatory self-isolation home at no additional expense.

The pandemic has taught us that competition does exist for the air travel spending by leisure and business travelers. Airline consumers identified alternatives during the pandemic and the best of these solutions will have staying power for the future. The Airline Industry Has Changed – Convenience and Predictability Are Missing is sponsored by global travel tech provider CarTrawler and was released today. This IdeaWorksCompany 15-page report describes how the industry has changed and provides ideas on how revenue can be increased and more traffic can be captured.  Airlines will face moments during 2022 that define whether they continue to struggle or return as robust providers of service to leisure and business travelers. The magic of surviving, and even thriving, is determined by how airlines adapt to what is new and maximize what will remain the same.

The pandemic has taught us that competition does exist for the air travel spending by leisure and business travelers. Airline consumers identified alternatives during the pandemic and the best of these solutions will have staying power for the future.  This 15-page report describes how the industry has changed and provides ideas on how revenue can be increased and more traffic can be captured.  Many of the habits formed by travelers during the pandemic will be enduring and are reflected in the perspectives covered in this report:  1. Network airlines will focus on leisure travel.  2. Business will be more a la carte and premium economy will grow.  3. Airlines will be enticed by branded fares and dynamic pricing.  4. More effort will be made to improve buy-on-board food. 5. Carriers need to provide protection from uncertainty. 6. Border closures are here to stay.

CarTrawler, the leading provider of online car rental distribution systems, and IdeaWorksCompany, the foremost consultant on ancillary revenue, project airline ancillary revenue will increase to $65.8 billion worldwide in 2021, compared to $58.1 billion in 2020. The CarTrawler Worldwide Estimate of Ancillary Revenue represents an increase built upon 2021 passenger traffic gains, with consumer support for a la carte services and co-branded credit cards holding steady. Earlier this year, CarTrawler and IdeaWorksCompany reported the ancillary revenue disclosed by 75 airlines for 2020. These statistics were applied to a larger list of 109 airlines to provide a truly global projection of ancillary revenue activity by the world’s airlines for 2021. This marks the 12th year IdeaWorksCompany has prepared a projection of ancillary revenue activity.

Click here to download the graphics from page one and two of the press release (free to use).

The 2021 edition of the CarTrawler Yearbook of Ancillary Revenue by IdeaWorksCompany, released today as a 136-page report, describes the 2020 ancillary revenue activities and results for 75 airlines. The pandemic sliced passenger traffic and revenue by more than 50% last year. Yet, most of the world’s airlines survived 2020, which is an amazing accomplishment. In a year of gloom, the positive performance of ancillary revenue provided desperately needed support. An assessment of these results indicates ancillary revenue was the only financial success for airlines in 2020.  This is the first year with Wizz Air in the #1 slot, which has traditionally been held by North American carriers such as Spirit, Viva Aerobus, and Allegiant. The 55.9% result for Wizz Air also represents a yearbook record; the prior record of 47.6% was established by Viva Aerobus for the 2018 period.

Click here to download a graphic of the top 20 airlines ranked by ancillary revenue as a % of total revenue.

Fifty airlines post higher year-over-year results for “ancillary revenue as a percent of total revenue” in the 2021 edition of the CarTrawler Yearbook of Ancillary Revenue.  The 136-page yearbook describes the 2020 ancillary revenue activities and results for 75 airlines.  This year’s 75 airlines represent a very robust 68.9% of IATA’s worldwide airline industry passenger traffic for 2020. The list is a collection of the world’s best performing ancillary revenue airlines. Over all, ancillary revenue as a percentage of total revenue among the 75 airlines was 14.6% for 2020, which is a noteworthy increase above the 12.1% for 2019.  In a year of gloom, the positive performance of ancillary revenue provided desperately needed support. An assessment of these results indicates ancillary revenue was the only financial success for airlines in 2020.

This report may be purchased by clicking this link.

The new Datalex Big Book of Airline Data by IdeaWorksCompany offers passenger traffic, airline revenue, and frequent flyer info for 188 airlines from Aegean to Zhuhai.  Dublin, Ireland & Shorewood, Wisconsin, 12 August 2021: Datalex, a market leader in digital commerce for retail travel, and IdeaWorksCompany, the foremost consultant on ancillary revenue, have released the second edition of The Datalex Big Book of Airline Data by IdeaWorksCompany. The 2021 edition provides a world of airline industry data collated by alphabetical order, size, airline type, region, and alliance.

• Asia & South Pacific airlines had the largest share of world traffic at 40.9%, which represents a distinct increase above 34.6% for 2019.
• The big 4 airlines of China (Air China Group, China Eastern Group, China Southern Group, and Hainan Airlines Group), posted a 41.4% traffic drop, which was significantly below the global weighted average of 54.9%.
• US & Canada airlines had the largest year-over-year revenue drop of 63%, which was higher than the global weighted average of 55.8%.

Click here to download a graphic of world airline traffic from the Big Book.

The 78-page “Big Book” is available free of charge via download at Datalex.com and IdeaworksCompany.com.

Datalex, a market leader in digital commerce for retail travel, and IdeaWorksCompany, the foremost consultant on ancillary revenue, have released the second edition of The Datalex Big Book of Airline Data by IdeaWorksCompany. The 2021 edition provides a world of airline industry data collated by alphabetical order, size, airline type, region, and alliance.  The first part of the Big Book contains passenger traffic results for 180 airlines. The second part of the report contains revenue results for 152 airlines. The final section provides membership data disclosed by 42 frequent flyer programs.  The 78-page “Big Book” is available free of charge via download at Datalex.com and IdeaworksCompany.com.

For many airlines, revenue from seat assignment sales has moved up the income statement from a minor presence to a strong #2 spot. For some, this can be a billion-dollar result, and for every other airline it’s a multi-million-dollar business. Seat Assignment Fees Firmly on Airline Radars is sponsored by global travel tech provider CarTrawler and was released today. The IdeaWorksCompany 16-page analysis describes the methods deployed by airlines to encourage consumer acceptance and recommends four tools to maximize seat assignment revenue.