Britain has the worst record when it comes to airline customers facing hidden extras when booking flights.
According to a study of 4,500 consumers in nine countries, Britain has the highest number of consumers most likely to be presented with hidden surcharges during the payment process (41%), while the lowest was in Japan (8%).
The research looked at issues regarding booking and payment methods by surveying consumers in the UK, US, China, Japan, Brazil, Finland, Spain, Germany, and France, and also questioning decision makers at 51 airline merchants, including low cost, regional and global carriers.
Commissioned by WorldPay and carried out by Loudhouse in February, it also found that:
– surcharge transparency is one of the biggest issues for consumers across all countries surveyed, with 28% feeling they had been presented with ‘hidden’ charges
– 65% of customers said they would be prepared to pay a percentage of their flight cost towards surcharges.
– 3.8% of their fare was the global average consumers would be prepared to pay in surcharges, but on average UK consumers are prepared to pay 4.57% in the form of surcharges
– 75% of UK consumers bought airline tickets direct through an airline website over the last 12 months
– over the last 12 months, 59% of consumers bought tickets through budget airlines, 58% through traditional airlines and 20% through package airlines
– the average time taken by UK customers to complete the online payment process is 26 minutes (the average worldwide was 25 minutes).
Mike Parkinson, VP of airlines for WorldPay, said: "According to the research, consumers who have purchased an airline ticket online in the last 12 months are frustrated with the lack of transparency around surcharges, and it is one of the biggest contributors to shopping cart abandonment.
"This issue is associated most predominately with budget airlines, of which there is quite a large number of low cost airlines in the UK. Consumers accept that taxes and fees need to be paid and are willing to pay a percentage of their ticket price to cover these costs. In the UK, the percentage that a consumer is prepared to pay is higher than the global average (4.57% vs. 3.81%), but there is a demand for the total cost to be made clearer.
"Airline merchants are however already taking note and looking to review the way they present surcharges to their consumers."
by Bev Fearis
