Skift Take
The point IATA makes is that airlines do benefit from and are interested in having happy customers. Schaaf says that proof of the pudding is in the airlines which pay good money to buy this report from the Association.
During yesterday's International Air Transport Association (IATA) Media Day in Geneva, IATA Director of Marketing and Sales Tim-Jasper Schaaf presented new data points which cast a new light on the importance of happy passengers.
The update came as a result of our previous report that IATA found no direct correlation between satisfied passengers and profitable airlines during a previous "non-scientific" review, as presented at the World Passenger Symposium in Hamburg, and subsequent reports in the media which extrapolated from the information we presented.
Upon noting media and public interest on this question, Schaaf said, the organization went back to the drawing board. A still not entirely "scientific" but more considered review of the results of IATA's "Airs@t Customer Satisfaction Benchmark" report, a survey of over 60,000 travelers carried out by an independent body, finds that there is some correlation between satisfied passengers and airline market share.
"In a scond step to see if there is a relationship between airlines' customer satisfaction and their market performance on individual routes, we took a look at the major European--North American route. We found a correlation coeficient of .54, which signifies a strong positive, linear relationship. Again, we found the same trend which is: the higher the customer satisfaction, the higher the relative market share," Schaaf said.
The Ai
