Internet users who frequent airline Web sites to conduct research and book their travel, say Continental Airlines has the best user-friendly Web site of all the major carriers.

A recent survey comparing airline Internet sites, ranked Continental Airlines’ Web site, http://www.flycontinental.com/, No. 1 in satisfaction and loyalty. The survey was conducted by NPD Online Research, a division of the NPD Group, one of the nation’s largest marketing research firms.

The NPD survey ran on five major airline sites, comparing travel experience, site usage and overall site satisfaction. Of those surveyed, 78 percent rated Continental’s Web site as being excellent to very good. Sixty-two percent said Continental’s site was better than the other airlines, and 97 percent said they were likely to revisit the site.

“Our Web site is an extension of our company. Therefore, we want online customers to experience the same high-level of service satisfaction,” said Kevin McKenna, Continental’s manager electronic channel marketing.

About the Study
The NPD Airline Web Site Tracking Study was fielded in October 1998 using the NPD Online Research SiteSelectsm methodology (patent pending), which selects a randomized sample of visitors to a client’s Web site and invites them to complete a survey through a Java script pop-up invitation. For this study, invitations were placed on the Web sites of American, Canadian, Continental, TWA and United Airlines
About The NPD Group, Inc
The NPD Group is an international marketing information company headquartered in Port Washington, NY. Founded in 1953, the firm specializes in providing marketing information and associated computer software-based information management systems. NPD is the ninth largest market research firm in the U.S. based upon 1997 revenues, according to the American Marketing Association’s Honomichl 50. NPD has offices and affiliations in 36 countries, covering North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. NPD Online Research is a division of The NPD Group which uses World Wide Web-based technologies to conduct and deliver market research and analysis. In addition to SiteSelect, NPD Online Research also offers The NPD Online Panel, a pre-recruited sample of Internet representative individuals for conducting marketing research on the Web.

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