New research released Wednesday, November 23 by global travel technology provider, Sabre Corporation, has revealed that African air travel spend is expected to rise 24 percent with the introduction of the single pan-African passport in 2018.
The introduction of the new passport will enable African travellers to visit other countries on the continent without a visa.
The survey by Sabre, the company said, aimed to uncover the opportunities and challenges currently faced by travellers in Africa in order to help airlines’ growth and provide African travellers an overall better journey.
Travellers from the four African countries of South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Egypt were surveyed, with those having flown in the past 24 months saying they would spend 24 percent more, from $1,100 to $1,500 annually, with the introduction of the passport.
But despite a willingness among travellers to spend more on flights, travel in Africa still remains inaccessible to the majority, with only 23 percent of those surveyed having travelled abroad at all in the last two years.
When asked what prevents them from travelling more, the top reasons were prohibitive travel expenses (32%), difficulty in obtaining VISAs (31%), difficulty in travel booking (30%) and lack of flights to chosen destinations ( 28%).
Travellers also expressed a number of dissatisfaction about their current experiences when travelling, with 27 percent saying the check-in process takes too long, while 22 percent said the check-in procedure is confusing.
Also, 20 percent said they don’t like the food on aircraft and 19 percent said they think there is not enough to do at the airport.
“The results suggest that while travel is inaccessible to many and is difficult for those who do travel, there is a still a strong desire to travel more,” said Dino Gelmetti, vice president, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Airline Solutions, Sabre.
According to him, “African carriers currently face tough competition from international rivals that control 88 percent of African airspace but, as demand for travel increases, African airlines have a real opportunity to win the lion’s share of bookings by addressing the pain points of travellers and going the extra mile to improve their experience.”
Respondents further expressed that they would be willing to spend up to $104 per trip on an airline’s extra products and services, such as excess baggage, cabin class upgrades, as well as special food and beverage, if it improved and personalized their journey.
“Airlines, globally, currently pocket an average of just $16 per passenger on ancillaries, so the fact that African travellers are prepared to spend six times more than that represents a significant retail opportunity for carriers on the continent,” said Gelmetti.
He also noted that airlines will flourish if they invest in technology that can make sense of customer data and use it to offer passengers the right product in the right context at the right time.
“This technology, which empowers airlines to mirror the personalized shopping tactics already mastered by the online retail industry has been proven to increase ancillary revenue by an average of 10 percent, and is being used by some of the world’s most forward-thinking carriers,” Gelmatti concluded.
