News
Airline websites could show competing flights
April 4th 2019
First is AirAsia’s Tony Fernandes promising to sell competitor flights. Read More »
Airlines in the region are warming up to the idea of their own websites showing flight options from competing airlines. Some may do this in a bid to become a digital travel platform while others want to confront public opinion about high fares.
First with a plan is AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes. The AirAsia website this year will sell flights on competing airlines, low-cost and full-service. “We will negotiate directly with airlines and also go to consolidators. I’ve a lot of relationships with airlines — including those who don’t like us — but ultimately people want business from a strong channel,” he told Skift.
Fernandes eyes a two-fold opportunity. First is AirAsia’s already large web traffic and customer profile data that could boost sales by making the airline more into a travel platform, a goal in aviation that is often cited but seldom has a path to achieve.
Secondly, Fernandes wants to position AirAsia in the technology sector space. This has stock benefits, with Skift citing AirAsia figures that the airline has 65 million monthly active users of its website compared to Expedia’s 60 million. Yet AirAsia is valued at $2.3 billion compared to Expedia’s $17.9b. “We looked at why investors started investing in OTAs and we suddenly thought, we have better data and reach than many of them,” Fernandes said.
Fernandes Tweeted this week that the airline’s website will be set-up as a separate company “within weeks”. “With all of our airlines making good profits and providing huge data, airasia.com will be as big if not bigger than Taveloka and other OTAs,” he also Tweeted.
Full-service airlines have studied incorporating into their website a screen scrape of competitor flight options. Airlines want to counter notions they are significantly more expensive. A more sophisticated display would also show what passengers receive on the different airlines, a bid airlines hope could show a higher fare comes with greater value.
All these moves underscore that airlines understand passengers shop around and there cannot be a holy wall around an airline’s website. The lack of comparison on airline websites has fuelled metasearch, which has monetised the opportunity. As Fernandes told Skift, “The Internet is transparent. People who buy AirAsia tickets would already have checked Kayak or other price comparison sites.”
