Passengers Don’t Make Rational Judgments, Which is Good News for Branding Experts
Skift Take
Traditional full-service airlines are an endangered species in the skies, and have been for decades, as industry consolidation proves. But a passenger perception gap still threatens the business. The legacy airlines remaining must focus on better brand definition to improve passenger satisfaction, if they are to survive.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has found that happy airline passengers are hard to come by, and that pleased passengers may not reward the bottom line, but passengers' perceptions can be influenced by brand.
Passengers reward airlines for offering bare-minimum passenger experience products, voting with their wallets in favour of low-cost carrier models. In response, full-service airlines have diluted their product and service models to compete with low-cost airlines, and match consumer preferences, as evidenced by their purchasing habits.
While this is bad news for the Economy cabin, there is no better news for the Premium cabin—a segment which makes up the dominant share of full-service airline profits.
Passenger expectations keep shifting at the front of the plane, IATA reports, forcing airlines to leap-frog a competitor’s last best product. It has become a race to be the 'best-for-now' that slim airline margins are b
