The impact of budget airlines on first-time travel, in two charts

SOMETHING happened towards the end of the last decade that caused people who had never before paid for their own overseas travel to finally take the plunge in significant numbers, according to the results of an online survey conducted by BusinessWorld Online.

 

The survey asked poll participants how old they were when they first paid for their own overseas trips. The question was structured to filter out earlier trips paid for by parents or employers, and to reveal the ages at which respondents felt sufficiently adventurous and economically secure to make such a large investment. Respondents were also asked their current age so the compilers of the study could determine what year they made their first paid-for trips.

Generally speaking, the numbers consistently show a large majority going through this rite of passage in their twenties and early thirties, though one outlier made the trip as early as 16 and some would not take this step until they approached their forties. Beyond that, the survey results reveal much about how the picture has changed over time.

Chart one suggests that first-time paid-for travel spiked sometime in 2007, just as budget flying started to take off. It is probably not a coincidence that Cebu Pacific Air recorded its strongest passenger growth numbers in its history that year - 58.8% for domestic and international service combined. Two years prior, the airline was transitioning from the DC9 to the Airbus A320 family of aircraft, and 2007 represented the first full year using the more capable new planes.

 

 

 Chart two shows two trends happening simultaneously, starting from about 2007: twenty-somethings embarking on their first overseas trips at a progressively younger age, and small numbers in their late thirties also making their first paid trips. Between 2007 and 2011 the average age of first-time travelers dropped from 36.5 years to 24.4 years, before bouncing back to the mid-30s by 2014. We can make an educated guess that cheap fares worked their magic first on ever-more-adventurous young people, with a follow-on boom in travelers approaching middle age for whom air travel with more family members finally became feasible.

We can’t rule out other factors behind the boom in first-time travel, such as the improving economy and the greater ease of booking flights brought about by the Internet. But all these factors are very likely interconnected. In any event, airlines and airplanes are a good enough place to start for our purposes; having viewed the numbers, we grow confident enough to state that all the airlines' efforts at revolutionizing and democratizing the flying experience are starting to have a noticeable impact on travel behavior. -- Troy Medina

 

source:  Businessworld