AirPlus Data Show Drop Of 19% In Tickets, 11% In Average Ticket Price

AirPlus International reported yesterday that air ticket purchases by customers of more than 12 months' standing fell 19 percent in January and February 2009, year over year. Average ticket price was down 11 percent, which chairman of the executive board Patrick Diemer attributed to travel managers tightening control on numerous aspects of policy, including booking further in advance, reducing use of business class and increasing use of low-cost carriers. "Travel managers are gaining more authority to implement travel guidelines," he said.

In the first two months of 2009, the average number of days that tickets were booked in advance of travel was 16, down from 14.8 days in the same period in 2008 and 13.2 in 2007. The proportion of tickets in business class fell to 10 percent, down from 13 percent in 2008 and 15 percent in 2007. Use of low-cost carriers crept up at the same time, from 9 percent in 2006 to 16 percent in 2008 and 18 percent in the first two months of this year.

Although not directly affecting ticket price, ticket cancellations also create unwelcome process costs. Diemer cited a decline in these figures as another example of travel managers inculcating more discipline among travelers. U.K. cancellations were down from 7.1 percent in 2007 to 4.6 percent this year, and in France from 11.1 percent to 9.1 percent, with slightly smaller falls in the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland.

In separate research among 1,500 travel managers conducted last month by AirPlus, 5 percent of respondents in Europe claimed to have cancelled all travel activities. U.S. and Asia figures were 19 percent and 25 percent respectively, though Diemer said he was surprised how high these were. U.K. managing director Yael Klein added, "We haven't seen a single customer that has stopped all travel, but we have seen some customers stop travel for entire departments."

Diemer also announced the AirPlus financial results for 2008. Total settlement volume rose from €15.9 billion to €18.1 billion, with nearly all the growth in the first three quarters. Sales revenue climbed from €194 million to €230 billion and profit before tax from €18 million to €20.2 million.