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Hitwise Intelligence - Sandra Hanchard - Asia Pacific

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Singapore Budget Airlines Stronghold, Destinations Searches Opportunity

October 25, 2006

This week I've been researching the Singapore online travel industry, specifically the dominance and competitiveness of low-cost airlines. A key indicator is that 3 of the top 5 websites in the Hitwise Singapore Aviation - Commercial Airlines industry belong to budget carriers, comprising 47.8% of visits for the week ending 21 October 2006. These included Jetstar, Tiger Airways and AirAsia. What's interesting is that while budget carriers have strengthened their position against traditional players such as Singapore Airlines, search terms for key destinations are not being captured to their full extent by airlines.

Travel Players

Firstly, here's a market view of the Airlines category, where national carrier Singapore Airlines held its lead with 24.9% share for the week ending 21 October 2006. Jetstar closely followed with 20.9% and has been an aggressive player in the region, particularly since it merged Jetstar Asia with Singapore competitor ValuAir in July 2005.

Cebu Pacific Air, a low-cost carrier from the Philippines, has attracted significant online visits by users in the Singapore market after it commenced daily Manila-Singapore flights in August 2006. Visits to the Cebu Pacific Air website increased by 65% between weeks ending 5 August 2006 and 21 October 2006, and ranked at #12 position for the week ending 21 October 2006.

Destinations Search Terms

To indicate where Singapore Internet users are seeking to travel, I've generated a Search Terms Suggestions report on variations on the term, 'flights to'. See the below table:

You'll see that the most popular search term variation on 'flights to' by Singapore Internet users for the 24 weeks ending 21 October 2006 was 'flights to bali'. Other popular regional destinations included, 'flights to penang', 'flights to perth', and 'cheap flights to bangkok'. The most popular long-haul destination searched for was 'cheap flights singapore to london'.

Opportunities for Airlines on Search Term Traffic

Location-based search terms are a powerful marketing resource to inform airlines' route strategies, as well as presenting an opportunity for airlines to acquire more customers. Hitwise Search Term analysis reveals however that travel agencies rather than budget carriers are benefiting from this search traffic. For example, on the search phrase, 'flights to bali', travel agencies Last Minute and Zuji appeared amongst the top websites to receive search traffic. Similarly, on the search term, 'bangkok', 7 out the top 10 websites to receive traffic were Accommodation and Agencies sites, with Airlines notably missing. Targeting relevant search traffic therefore seems an opening for any of the budget carriers in the Singapore market to gain an online advantage.

Posted by Sandra Hanchard at 02:19 PM | (0) | (0)
In Categories Travel