Skift Take
A race to the bottom on fares benefits no one. Airlines need to remember that consumers look at other things apart from the final price.
Remember when people didn’t care about coffee? Robert Albert, CEO of Routehappy does.
Now, however, consumers are happy to pay a couple of extra dollars for their favourite brew and he believes there are parallels that can be drawn with the aviation industry.
Speaking at the Skift Global Forum in New York City in September, Albert said that there was a big opportunity to “create value in this industry by helping flyers and airlines differentiate”.
Albert’s company Routehappy is one of a number of companies providing flyers with better information when they go looking for flights.
“Comoditization is a big challenge for airlines. Every day they have to compete on price often to the detriment of their own profitability,” he said.
As well as learning from coffee sellers, airlines would do well to follow the hotel industry, which, Albert said, is much better at differentiating between products.
You can watch his full discussion, below.
Read more coverage of Skift Global Forum 2016.
At this year’s Skift Global Forum in New York City, travel leaders from around the world gathered for two days of inspiration, information, and conversation for panels such as this as well as solo TED-like talks on the future of travel.
Visit our Skift Global Forum site for more details about 2017 events, including our London event in April of 2017.
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Tags: airlines, sgf2016, skift global forum