Customers say cost is important when they book a flight – but a nearby local airport is desired
Web Certain Service Aug 24, 2007: 6:42 am Edit This | [en]
A survey of customers who have booked holidays through www.holidays-direct.co.uk has revealed that although cost is the most important factor when choosing to book a flight, the option to fly from a local airport is almost as important.
Customers were asked to pick what they consider to be the most important factor when booking flights from a list of options.
Cost was the choice of nearly half of respondents to the survey (44%), but over one third of people stated that the location of the departure airport was the most important factor for them.
Despite a lot of recent hype by airline companies, the option to check-in via the internet is not a feature desired by air travellers. None of the survey respondents claimed this was a major influence when booking a flight.
The full survey results are as follows:
Question: When you book a flight, which of the following is the most important factor?
Cost – 44%
Location of departure airport – 37%
Time of flight – 11%
Option to choose seat – 4%
Reputation of airline – 4%
Option to check-in on the internet – 0%
Paul Reeve of www.holidays-direct.co.uk said: “When we carried out the survey we fully expected cost to be the defining factor, but we have noticed a change in the behaviour of our customers over the last few years, following the mass expansion of local airports in the UK.”
“People are now very used to being able to fly to their favourite holiday destinations from their nearest airport.”
“The days when holidaymakers from the north of England were willing to waste a day of their annual leave just to get to Heathrow Airport are long gone.”
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