Press Releases

CarTrawler and IdeaWorksCompany introduce the “Transformation 2021” series of reports as a yearlong effort to guide the airline and travel industries to the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel. Transformation 2021: How Airlines and Travelers Will Adapt as the Pandemic Recedes is sponsored by global travel tech provider CarTrawler and was released today. The IdeaWorksCompany 17-page analysis evaluates how airlines are affected by vaccines, Covid-19 testing, and health passports and how consumer perception of everyday threats likely plays a large role in the return of travel.

Click here to download the graphic from page 15 of the report.

New research from CarTrawler and IdeaWorksCompany has shown that US and Canada airlines dominate global ancillary revenue, accounting for more than a third of the market’s total value of $58.2 billion. This assessment comes against the backdrop of rare good news for the airline industry. Ancillary revenue actually increased during the depths of the pandemic when measured on a per passenger basis. In a 3rd quarter 2020 survey of 20 airlines, the per passenger average was $26.91, which is a 13.1% increase above the $23.36 result for 3rd quarter 2019.

Click here to download the graphic from page one of the press release.

Two highly respected business pioneers have joined IdeaWorks, the travel world’s leading ancillary revenue and loyalty marketing consultancy.  Ben Baldanza, former CEO of Spirit Airlines, helped inaugurate ultra-low-cost airline service in the United States. And human resources veteran Jerry Scott has been guiding businesses and public organizations on the path toward diversity and inclusion for more than three decades.  Their 85 years of combined airline experience boost consulting firm’s 140+ years of professional airline management.

Airlines can recover the revenue loss by prioritizing leisure travel and ancillary revenue, along with modifying cabin seating strategy.  Dublin, Ireland & Shorewood, Wisconsin, Wednesday, 1 December, 2020: Business travel is likely to stay depressed as the airline industry begins its recovery from the pandemic. That’s the conclusion of a new report based upon a first-ever approach of assessing business travel by trip purpose, rather than industry category. The Journey Ahead: How the Pandemic and Technology Will Change Airline Business Travel is sponsored by global travel tech provider CarTrawler and was released today.

Click here to download the JPG graphic from page 11 of the report.

IdeaWorksCompany, the foremost consultant on ancillary revenue, and CarTrawler, the leading provider of online car rental distribution systems, project airline ancillary revenue will drop to $58.2 billion worldwide in 2020, compared to $109.5 billion in 2019.  The CarTrawler Worldwide Estimate of Ancillary Revenue represents a 47% decrease, dropping slightly below the $59.2 billion amount for 2015.  Earlier this year, CarTrawler and IdeaWorksCompany reported the ancillary revenue disclosed by 81 airlines for 2019.  These statistics were applied to a larger list of 134 airlines to provide a truly global projection of ancillary revenue activity by the world’s airlines for 2020. This marks the eleventh year IdeaWorksCompany has prepared a projection of ancillary revenue activity.

Click here to download the graphic from page one of the press release.
Click here to download the graphic from page two of the press release.

The new Datalex Big Book of Airline Data by IdeaWorksCompany offers passenger traffic, airline revenue, and frequent flyer info for 221 airlines from Aegean to Zhuhai.  Datalex, a market leader in digital commerce for travel retail, and IdeaWorksCompany, the foremost consultant on ancillary revenue, released a new publication providing a world of data collated by alphabetical order, size, airline type, region, and alliance. The Datalex Big Book of Airline Data by IdeaWorksCompany is a new 77-page publication available free of charge via download at Datalex.com and IdeaworksCompany.com.

Click here to download the graphic from page one of the press release.
Click here to download a collection of JPG graphics based upon Datalex Big Book data.

Sales from non-ticket sources in 2019 jumped 20% for the top 10 airlines, while 2020 results show a la carte rates are holding.  The 2020 edition of the CarTrawler Yearbook of Ancillary Revenue by IdeaWorksCompany is the largest ever, with 81 airlines disclosing results. By every measure, 2019 was a year of overwhelmingly good ancillary revenue for airlines – which provided resilience for the challenges of 2020.  The yearbook  includes tables which rank the 81 airlines by ancillary revenue as a percentage of total airline revenue and dollars per passenger, and for each airline, current year projections are provided.  Please refer to our Store to purchase and download the 2020 edition.

Click here to download a JPG graphic of the top 20 airlines – ancillary revenue as a % of revenue.

CarTrawler-sponsored research determines face masks required by almost all airlines, with widespread adoption of electrostatic disinfection, temperature checks, and distribution of hand sanitizer.  The world’s leading airlines are actively engaged in the process of boosting traveler confidence during the pandemic. The table (also available as a graphic) in this release displays the results of a review of 25 leading network airlines and low cost carriers grouped by global region.

Note: An earlier version of the release and graphic omitted Delta’s blocking of middle seats.

Click here to download JPG file graphic of the table in the press release.

Travel is returning and airlines have an opportunity to improve the experience for consumers and bring more critical revenue to their bottom lines. The essential elements of baggage policies and change fees had simple beginnings, but over time the quest for more revenue has created a structure poorly equipped for the COVID-19 era. In addition, the pandemic requires new sensitivity when developing revenue-producing plans. This report describes how this can occur for airlines in the categories of change fees, baggage policies, and the overall process of boosting airline revenue.

Flight Plan 2020:  Creating Traveler Confidence in the Time of COVID was released today as a free 17-page report sponsored by CarTrawler and offers recovery advice for the travel industry with examples from Emirates, Etihad, Hilton, Korean Air, United, and Xiamen Airlines. The report is written to help those working at airlines and in the travel industry sort through the issue of traveler confidence and how it can be restored. Individual airlines, hotels, vacation rentals, car hire, airport transfers, and sightseeing companies are already making decisions to ensure the safety of their customers, which will also increase traveler confidence in our industry.