Results Out For TripAdvisor’s Annual India Air Travel Survey 2014: Indigo Outshines Other Carriers To Emerge As India’s Favourite Domestic Airline

Highlights

- IndiGo trumps Jet Airways as most preferred domestic airline by a higher margin this year as compared to 2013

- Jet Airways takes lead over IndiGo in crucial categories: in-flight entertainment and food/beverages, cabin crew appearance and quality, seat comfort and leg room, website and internet / mobile connectivity on-board, mobile app

- Air Asia emerges as the airline travellers are most looking forward to fly with majority (73%) respondents voting for it

- 45% respondents this year are comfortable with paying inclusive fares as long as it falls within their budget compared to 24% last year

TripAdvisor®,the world’s largest travel site, today announced the results of its fourthedition of India Air Travel Survey 2014, collected from over 2100 respondents. According to the findings, IndiGo Airlines emerged as the clear favourite in the domestic airline category this year as well leaving the closest competitor, Jet Airways, behind bya margin of 8% vs 6% in 2013.

Commenting on the findings Nikhil Ganju, Country Manager, TripAdvisor India said, “Congratulations to Indigo for emerging as India’s favourite airline third year in a row. In terms of overall experience also Indigo has come out on top with 42% respondents voting for it however, if one reads between the lines there is considerable scope of improvement with respect to its in-flight entertainment and in-flight food/beverages services. On the other hand Jet Airways has been voted the chosen one in a number of categories including in-flight entertainment, in-flight food/beverages, cabin crew appearance, cabin crew quality etc. The airline has also emerged as the number one airline whose app has been downloaded on the mobile phones.”

“It is also interesting to see the buzz Air Asia has managed to generate with whopping 73% respondents wanting to fly with the airline in the near future. What remains to be seen is how they build on this anticipation in the time to come” he added.

Overall Consensus

• National carrier Air India continues its legacy as the Least Favourite Domestic Airline for the fourth year in a row

• Air India continues to be perceived as the most unsafe airline by Indian travellers, while IndiGo continues its reign as the safest domestic airline second year in a row

• IndiGo emerges as the clear winner and rated highest on:

• Jet Airways rated best on the following parameters:  

• Respondents polled Emirates as the Best International Airlinefor the fourth year in a row followed by Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa. Emirates has been rated the best by travellers on all parameters this year again making it the undisputed choice for international travel

Seat and Cost Concerns

• 89% respondents prefer choosing their seat at the time of making the booking or web check-in

• Though having a seat of their choice is important, only 15% respondents said they ‘always’ or ‘often’ chose to pay extra for better airplane seat assignment. Of those, 98% polled they would not be willing to pay for extra leg room for flights under four hours. However, 98% also said they would be willing to pay between Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000 for extra leg room for flights over four hours

• While most Indians are comfortable with bundled/ consolidated fares (45%), 20% respondents said they do not mind paying basic fare and adding items as per their needs. 16% respondents said unbundled fares are great for solo or overnight business travellers with minimum luggage, but not for a family going on a holiday

• Travellers increasingly believe that airlines are not transparent when it comes to costs. Nearly half the respondents (48%) think domestic airlines are not transparent about all the costs including booking a flight for example cost of- meal, extra baggage costs, etc. 

Tech Rising   

While web-check shows a sharp increase compared to last year however, not many respondents still follow airlines on social media

• 85% respondents indicated that they web-check in ‘sometimes’ or ‘always’ which is a big rise from76% in 2013

• 45% respondents polled having an airline app on their mobile phones vs just 23% in 2013. This clearly shows that there is a huge opportunity for commerce and content consumption, and headroom for airlines to push their app to the consumers

• Among the app users, checking flight options and web check-ins were the two most popular functions followed by checking flight status

• Jet Airways is the most downloaded app (61%) followed by IndiGo (50%)

• Also, only 26% respondents said they follow airlines on social media like Facebook & Twitter, a minor increase from 21% in 2013. The top domestic airlines thatare followed on social media are Jet Airways followed by IndiGo and Spice Jet 

Travel Titbits

• Travellersfind people getting up as soon as the aircraft stops (before the seat belt sign goes off) to rush out of the lane (56%) as the most annoying habit followed by passengers who rudely reclined the seat in front thereby leading to an argument/scuffle (51%), and passengers who don't switch off their phones and have to be asked to do so by the crew (40%)

• Travellers polled ‘casuals’ (83%) as their most preferred type of clothing for an air journey followed by formals with just 7%

• Top in-flight companions for passengers:

• iPod/ portable music player – 26%

• iPad/tablet – 42%

• Books – 59%

•  Favourite pastime for most Indians while on board :

• Watching movies in-flight – 63%

• Sleeping – 52%

• Reading – 59%

About TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor^® is the world's largest travel site*, enabling travelers to plan and have the perfect trip. TripAdvisor offers trusted advice from real travelers and a wide variety of travel choices and planning features with seamless links to booking tools. TripAdvisor branded sites make up the largest travel community in the world, reaching 315 million unique monthly visitors**, and more than 190 million reviews and opinions covering more than 4.4 million accommodations, restaurants and attractions. The sites operate in 45 countries worldwide, including China under daodao.com. TripAdvisor also includes TripAdvisor for Business, a dedicated division that provides the tourism industry access to millions of monthly TripAdvisor visitors.

TripAdvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ: TRIP) manages and operates websites under 24 other travel media brands:

www.airfarewatchdog.com,  www.bookingbuddy.com,  www.cruisecritic.com,  www.everytrail.com, www.familyvacationcritic.com,  www.flipkey.com,  www.gateguru.com,  www.holidaylettings.co.uk,  www.holidaywatchdog.com,  www.independenttraveler.com, www.jetsetter.com, www.lafourchette.com,  www.niumba.com,  www.onetime.com,  www.oyster.com,  www.seatguru.com, www.smartertravel.com, www.tingo.com, www.travelpod.com,  www.tripbod.com,  www.vacationhomerentals.com, www.viator.com,  www.virtualtourist.com, and www.kuxun.cn. 

*Source: comScore Media Metrix for TripAdvisor Sites, worldwide, August 2014

**Source: Google Analytics, average monthly unique users, Q3 2014; does not include traffic to daodao.com