UK low cost airlines are mounting a serious challenge to traditional carriers for the valuable business travel market, according to this year`s Company Barclaycard `Travel in Business Survey`. Over the last two years, the number of business travellers using low cost airlines has almost doubled.
According to Company Barclaycard, the UK`s leading corporate chargecard, more than half of all business travellers used a low cost airline last year and a massive ninety-six per cent of those who had, said that they would do so again. Furthermore, six out of ten chief executives surveyed revealed that they had chosen to fly with a `budget` airline during 2000.
Further research showed that Company Barclaycard`s 460,000 card holders spent a total of just under £134m on business air travel last year (an increase of almost fifty percent on 1999).
Simon Chick, Company Barclaycard`s head of marketing, says, “We know from our survey results that the majority of business travellers believe that business class on traditional airlines does not represent value for money, which may explain why so many are now looking to the cheaper carriers as a solution.”
“More than three-quarters of our cardholders believe they will need to undertake even more business travel over the next five years, so the low cost carriers can expect to make even greater inroads into this market.”
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