Anyone who has flown commercially in the past few years can attest that the glamour of air travel has long since dissipated. Today, cost conscience airlines – especially in North America and Europe – have created a hodge-podge of budget airlines with long lines, self-service shortcuts and decreasing legroom and amenities. But who are their budget travellers? And how much more are they willing to suffer in order to fly for pennies?

In this issue of Synovate In:fact we take a brief look at how travellers around the world feel about keeping their heads in the clouds... and their knees in their chest.


Frequent Flyers

Over 5,000 respondents across the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand were asked a range of questions regarding air travel. Overall, 59% said they had flown before, but the net percentage of travel was highest in Hong Kong (80%) and Singapore (82%) – not that unsurprising given that they are island cities. The title of the most frequent flyers went to Malaysians with 2.2% saying they flew two or more times a month. The French appear to like air travel the least – only 35% have soared through the air.

Travellers were then asked if the majority of their flights were for leisure or for business. The study found that over 20% of people in Malaysia and Thailand cited business as their main reason for air travel, whereas their European counterparts were more leisure oriented when it comes to plane trips, with only 6% of Germans and 7% of the French mentioning business travel as their primary reason for flying.


Balanced Budgets

With airlines under a number of economic pressures in the post-9/11 world, and with the price of fuel on the rise, 'budget air travel' has become the new buzz phrase for the industry. The study gauged perceptions of budget air travel by asking respondents how often they flew for less.

Budget airlines offer tickets at around half the current market prices on 1-2 hour short haul flights. But to do this, they have reduced in-flight meals and entertainment, as well as legroom. How interested were respondents in travelling with these stripped down air companies?

With the budget phenomenon just hitting Asia, people in Malaysia and Singapore, unsurprisingly, hardly ever travel on budget airlines, with 56% and 83% of air travellers in these countries saying they never fly a budget airline. Across the Pacific in the US and Canada, however, approximately 50% of respondents admitted to flying budget airlines at least some of the time. Europeans seem to fall in between these two extremes, with over 32% of air travellers in France and Germany choosing budget airlines for at least some of their flights.

75% of respondents agreed that an airline trip was just like a bus trip, saying, "they wanted to get there fast and cheap", with 64% of the respondents adding they would always choose a budget airline over bigger or national carriers if the budget airline ticket price was lower. This despite an overall 32% feeling that budget airlines treated passengers like a commodity and that there was no personal service.

Malaysians seem to be most fond of perks and amenities with 50% saying they would avoid budget airlines at all costs if it meant giving up the comfort provided by larger national airlines.


Winging it

However much people complained about budget airline service, frugal Americans, Canadians, the French and Germans still cite ticket price as the single most important factor when choosing an airline. Yet in Hong Kong, airline reputation still ruled the roost, with 30% of travellers saying it was the most important factor for them – only 15% cited ticket price. In Singapore and Thailand, over 23% of respondents reported seat comfort and legroom as their top consideration. Following close behind this factor, in-flight perks and amenities were the second most important factor for Thai respondents, with 22%, while only 1% of respondents in Singapore cited in-flight perks as their main concern. Americans agree with Singaporeans, with only one person saying the same. Canadians were also less concerned with perks and amenities with a mere 1.9% claiming it was a factor in ticket purchases.

Does sex sell in the skies?

And what about the lure of a good looking cabin crew? Surely, not a factor in flight planning – or is it? The study asked men from each country if it was more important to have a pretty female cabin crew or good food or movies. French males seem to feel that food and movies were important, as only 16% were willing to trade these perks in for attractive female flight attendants. On the contrary, over 30% of Hong Kong men sided with pretty cabin crew over food and movies – American men were a close second at 29%.

Although French women overwhelmingly thought, much like their male counterparts, that food and movies were more important than handsome young men, 19% of these women were still willing to make this trade-off versus only 11% and 6% of women in Hong Kong and Singapore, respectively. Overall, it seems most women would rather settle in with a good film and palatable food than enjoy some high-flying 'eye candy'.