Press Releases

The latest from IdeaWorksCompany.

Listed below are the most recent posts to the website.  Click on any item title or button to access our latest reports, press releases, and news items.  Or use the menu to the right to browse news, reports, articles featuring IdeaWorksCompany research, and press releases.

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Ben Baldanza and Jerry Scott Join IdeaWorksCompany – Press Release

December 10, 2020

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.

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Airline Business Trips Could Drop 36% as Corporate Travelers Embrace Technology – Press Release

December 1, 2020

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.

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Airline Ancillary Revenue Plummets to $58.2 Billion in 2020, Erasing 5 Years of Annual Gains – Press Release

November 17, 2020

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.

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Low Cost Carriers Fly 27% of World’s Passengers and Global Alliances Generate $483 Billion in Revenue – Press Release

October 27, 2020

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.

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Ancillary Revenue Provides Rare Good News for Airline Industry – Press Release

September 29, 2020

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.

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COVID-19 Survey of 25 Leading Airlines Identifies Global Use of Ten Strategies to Increase Traveler Confidence – Press Release

July 7, 2020

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.

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COVID-19 Has Made Baggage and Change Policies Obsolete; Allegiant, Ryanair, and Southwest Represent Alternatives – Press Release

June 16, 2020

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.

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10 Ways Airlines Encourage Travelers to Return by Creating Confidence in the Time of COVID – Press Release

May 12, 2020

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.

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“Change Fees Will Become Even More Unpopular” is One of 8 Ways Travel Will Be Different a Few Months from Now – Press Release

April 14, 2020

The pandemic will affect the airline business for years to come, but travel will return because it is an essential element of being human. There are no “opportunities” during this time of trial but we can learn from past economic challenges and global events that have tested the travel industry. This report anticipates the changes that will occur as consumers return to airlines, hotels, and car hire companies.

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My love letter to the airline industry during this time of trouble

March 31, 2020

Jay Sorensen’s letter to the global airline community:  for those at the ticket counter, at the gate, on the plane, on the ramp, in the hangar, and at corporate headquarters.

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