60 percent of British and American travellers would choose to fly with an African airline<\/strong><\/h4>\n

(Sabre Corporation Texas)<\/strong> Research from global travel technology provider Sabre,\u00a0has revealed that almost 6 in 10 travellers from the US and UK would consider flying with an African airline if travelling to the continent \u2013 suggesting a growing confidence in African aviation.\u00a0 This figure rises to 7 in 10 among Americans aged 25-34 years.<\/p>\n

The research also revealed that 60% of Americans aged 25-34 years see African airlines as attractive alternatives to their own countries\u2019 carriers. Two-thirds of these travellers were also confident that the experience, price and customer service on African airlines would be the same as that offered by their own country carriers.<\/p>\n

\u201cConfidence in African airlines is the highest it\u2019s been among some of Africa\u2019s key inbound tourism markets,\u201d said Dino Gelmetti, vice president EMEA, Airline Solutions, Sabre.\u00a0 \u201cThis creates a golden opportunity for African airlines to compete globally for inbound passenger traffic, 80% of which is operated by international carriers today.\u00a0 Our research also suggests an opportunity for African airlines to target specific groups of travellers \u2013 like young Americans \u2013 who are already positive about their brands.\u00a0 By investing in technology, airlines can analyse the needs of these travellers and tailor products and services accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabre\u2019s research, which surveyed 2,000 travellers from the UK and US, aimed to identify the challenges and opportunities faced by African airlines, in a bid to help them become profitable.\u00a0 African airlines posted a combined profit of just $100 million in 2016 \u2013 the lowest of all global regions.\u00a0 Just one carrier on the continent currently makes a significant profit \u2013 Ethiopian Airlines.<\/p>\n

Brits versus Americans<\/strong><\/p>\n

Travellers from the US and UK share a common interest in Africa \u2013 being two of the continent\u2019s largest inbound tourism markets.\u00a0 The two nations also said their three top reasons for choosing a flight were price, schedule and duration.\u00a0 However, American and British travellers were otherwise different.\u00a0 Twenty percent of Brits said they would choose an airline based on its reputation, while 25% of Americans would choose an airline based on loyalty offerings.\u00a0 British travellers were also much more motivated by price, while Americans considered a wider range of factors when choosing an airline \u2013 such as loyalty schemes, in-flight entertainment, onboard technology and reputation.<\/p>\n

When travelling to Africa, respondents also expressed an interest in a travel experience that was tailored towards them.\u00a0 This was particularly important for younger American travellers (under 35s) with almost one in five saying they would choose an airline based on this.\u00a0 An earlier study found that American and European travellers would be willing to spend almost $100 on extras to personalise their journeys \u2013 such as leg room, upgrades and excess baggage.<\/p>\n

Despite a willingness to spend on travel, these are the top factors that prevent travellers from visiting Africa more often \u2013 which carriers must address:<\/p>\n

\n
• 32% said they don\u2019t know enough about the destinations\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n
• 30% said the travel experience is likely to be too stressful\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n
• 28% said there are a lack of routes to where they would want to go<\/strong><\/li>\n
• 25% said the check-in experience would likely be too stressful<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  \u201cAirlines globally pocket an average revenue of just $16 per passenger on extras, so the fact that travellers from the UK and US are prepared to spend six times more than that represents a significant retail opportunity for carriers,\u201d said Gelmetti.\u00a0 \u201cThe African airline industry could flourish by addressing traveller pain points to attract these high-spending visitors.<\/p>\n

  Technology that can offer travellers the right product in the right context at the right time will then empower them to mirror the personalised shopping tactics already mastered by the online retail industry.\u00a0 This technology has been shown to increase airline ancillary revenue by an average of 10 percent, and is already used by some of the world\u2019s leading carriers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  60 percent of British and American travellers would choose to fly with an African airline (Sabre Corporation Texas) Research from global travel technology provider Sabre,\u00a0has revealed that almost 6 in 10 travellers from the US and UK would consider flying with an African airline if travelling to the continent \u2013 suggesting a growing confidence in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3956,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,47],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3953"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3953"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3955,"href":"http:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3953\/revisions\/3955"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/moovafrica.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}