Doha: The airline industry is facing an uphill battle to change its negative perception with consumers partly because it is “not customer focused,” said Air New Zealand’s Chief Executive this past week.
Christopher Luxon, speaking at the International Air Transport Association (IATA) annual meet held in Qatar, said the industry has a “huge problem” and that “there is a lot more that we can be doing.”
Luxon spoke on a panel addressing reputation issues in the industry.
Rowena Olegario, Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford University Centre for Corporate Reputation, said the problem is that the industry has developed a “baseline” reputation.
She said that being “safe, law abiding, that flying is secure” is not enough.
Individually, some airlines have successfully built strong brands. Emirates placed the highest out of four airlines that were ranked on Brand Finance’s top 500 global brand list this year. Qantas, however, has developed a brand around safety highlighted in the 1988 film Rainman when Dustin Hoffman’s character, Raymond Babbitt, refuses to fly on any carrier except Qantas because of its safety record.
Difference in quality
But safety has been at the forefront for many travellers especially since September 11, 2001 when terrorists hijacked four planes in the United States and killed almost 3,000 people in a coordinated attack. Today, the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 that disappeared in March has raised other questions about security and safety.
But safety is not the only issue. Alexandre de Juniac, Air France-KLM chairman and chief executive, who was also on the panel, said that there is a huge difference in quality between airlines.
“Our industry has split in two. One part has invested in comfort the other has invested on price,” he said.
De Juniac added that, the passenger experience is very important and that legacy airlines are “doing what they can.”
However, he pointed out that airlines do not have the marketing budgets of other industries to invest in advertising to build their brand.
Airlines are expected to deliver combined net profits of $18 billion (Dh66 billion) this year, which represents a $6 margin per passenger.
