How the World Chooses Flights

Synovate has released the results of a global study into perceptions of budget air travel and the importance of various factors in consumers' choice of airline. The results show very attitudes to the trade-off between comfort, perks and price between fliers from Europe, Asia and North America.

Fifty-nine per cent of all respondents said that they had flown before, rising to 82% and 80% respectively in the island cities of Singapore and Hong Kong. At the other end of the scale, only 35% of the French have flown before. The title of most frequent flyers goes to the Malaysians, with 2.2% stating that they fly two or more times a month.

Respondents from all countries claimed to travel primarily for leisure rather than business. Whilst over 20% of people in Malaysia and Thailand cited business as their main reason for air travel, Europeans are more leisure oriented in this respect, with only 6% of Germans and 7% of the French saying the same.

The budget air travel phenomenon is just hitting Asia and it is therefore unsurprising that 83% of air travellers in Singapore say they never fly with a budget airline. In the US and Canada only around half say this, and in Europe the figure is in the middle, with over 32% of air travellers in France and Germany choosing budget airlines for at least some of their flights.

There still seems more potential for the budget airline idea, however, with 75% of respondents agreeing that 'an airline trip is just like a bus trip', and should be 'fast and cheap'. 32% feel that budget airlines 'treat passengers like a commodity and there is no personal service', but 64% would always choose a budget airline over bigger or national carriers if the budget airline ticket price was lower (interestingly, Germans were least likely to do so). Of all the nationalities surveyed, Malaysians seemed to be the most fond of perks and amenities, with 50% saying that they would avoid budget airlines at all costs if it meant giving up the comfort provided by larger national airlines.

Large minorities in the USA (34%), Canada (36%), France (32%) and Germany (27%) still cite ticket price as the single most important factor in choosing an airline, whereas in Hong Kong the figure drops to 15% and airline reputation comes out top for 30% of travellers. In Singapore and Thailand, over 23% of respondents reported seat comfort and legroom as their top consideration. In-flight perks and amenities were the number two consideration for 22% of Thai respondents, versus a mere 1.9% of Canadians, 1% of Singaporean respondents and only one American.

The study also sought to discover the importance to consumers of a good-looking cabin crew. Overall, 25% of men - twice the amount of women - felt that this was more important than good food or movies. German and French males, however, were less interested than the average in a high altitude flirtation, with 65% and 60%, respectively, saying they disagreed with the idea. Hong Kong men were more evenly spread, with over 30% siding with pretty cabin crew over food and movies. American males came a close second at 29%.

Synovate's Head of Global Omnibus, Tom Mularz, commented on the research: 'With all airlines under a number of economic pressures in the post-9/11 world, budget airlines are offering tickets at around half the current market prices on 1-2 hour short-haul flights. But anyone who has flown commercially in the past few years can attest to that fact that the glamour of air travel has long since dissipated... We wanted to know how travellers around the world feel about having their heads in the clouds and their knees in their chest!'

The findings are taken from a Synovate Global Omnibus survey of over 5,000 qualified individuals conducted in the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. The Global Omnibus provides access to CATI telephone, Internet and face to face omnibus methodologies in 53 countries worldwide. The company's web site is at www.synovate.com

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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