IndiGo Airlines and Jet Airways battle it off for India’s Favourite Domestic Airline

-     IndiGo trumps Jet Airways as Most Preferred Domestic Airline by small margin

-     Passengers consider Kingfisher and Air India as unsafe bet in the air

TripAdvisor® India, the world’s largest travel site, today unveiled the results of its annual Airline Survey. Conducted across 2800 respondents, IndiGo Airlines emerged as the favourite domestic airline this year closely followed by Jet Airways. Last year’s winner, Kingfisher Airlines, still enjoys goodwill amongst Indian travellers with 74% respondents optimistic about the revival of the airline sometime in the future. 

Nikhil Ganju, Country Manager, TripAdvisor India elaborates: “IndiGo takes the top spot as favourite domestic carrier with Jet Airways closely tied behind. However travellers have voted Jet Airways as the best on most in-flight comfort & service parameters as well as website experience and safety.”

He further added, “The domestic airline industry overall has witnessed a difficult year and with recent turbulent times for Kingfisher Airlines, consumers have limited options. However, our survey shows that respondents consider the airline resilient and are positive about its comeback.”

Travel consensus

-        The absolute top spot has remained elusive to Jet Airways for the 3^rd year in a row. IndiGo & Jet Airways this year were close contenders for the title of Favourite Domestic Airline, displacing two time winner Kingfisher Airlines, with IndiGo taking the lead by a small margin. Jet Airways was also closely tied in last year’s survey with Kingfisher Airlines, second only by a small margin.

-        National carrier Air India continues its legacy as Least Favourite Domestic Airline for third year in a row.

-        Jet Airways emerges as best airline for: 

• Ground handling
• Cabin crew
• In- flight maintenance
• Seat comfort/Leg room
• In-flight food/beverage
• Website experience

 

-        IndiGo beats all other domestic carriers as best airline on:

• On time performance
• Value for money
• Landing / Take Off quality 

 

-        Kingfisher however still emerges as favourite airline for In-flight entertainment closely tied to Jet Airways.

-        Air India closely followed by Kingfisher is perceived as the most unsafe airline by Indian travellers while Jet Airways is voted as the safest domestic airline closely followed by IndiGo.

In another recently concluded survey on Business travel, Jet Airways emerged as the Numero Uno choice for business travellers with 46% respondents voting for it as their favourite domestic airline, followed by Indigo (30%). Kingfisher Airlines, Spice Jet and Air India were all tied for 3^rd spot at 7% each.

Undisputed Emirates

-        Emirates leads the list third year in a row as Best International Airline voted by 26% respondents followed by Singapore airlines (15%) and Lufthansa (11%).

-        Emirates (16%) also tops the wish list (second year in a row) of the airline travellers have not flown as yet, but want to experience. Lufthansa Airlines (12%) and Singapore Airlines (9%) are next in line as most desired airlines to fly.

-        This year Emirates also gets the thumbs up from travellers on all parameters making it the undisputed choice for international shores.

• On time performance
• Value for money
• In-flight entertainment
• In-flight food/beverage
• Cabin crew quality
• Landing/ Take off quality
• Ground handling
• In-flight maintenance
• Seat comfort/Leg room

Also the Business Travel survey saw Emirates surpass all other carriers by a large margin with 20% respondents claiming it to be their preferred international airline for business travel, followed by Singapore Airlines (9%) and Lufthansa (8%).

 

Tech-in

Web check-in shows surprisingly high adoption driven also in part by mobile phones, whereas social media engagement with airlines lags. 

-        A whopping 80% respondents indicated that they web check in ‘sometimes’ or ‘always’ 

-        However, only 23% respondents had the app of an airline on their mobile. Among app users, checking flight options and flight status were the two most popular functions followed by web check in.

-        Also, only 23% respondents stated that they follow airlines on social media like Facebook & Twitter. 

Baby on Board

On being asked about their experience while flying with an infant (or child up to 2 years) this year , 53% said that their experience was fine but the airline did not do anything special for them while they were travelling with child. However, 38% among them expressed that the airline crew provided great service and offered help to make their travel with kids more comfortable.

Travel Bites

-        Top three in flight companions for passengers:

• Book – 60%
• iPod / portable music player   - 36 % 
• iPad/tablet – 31% 

 

 -      The top three in the list of behaviour people find most annoying among co-passengers are:

• Taking too long to stow overhead baggage or block moving walkways (43%)
• Loud mobile phone conversations (42%)
• Getting up before the seatbelt sign is off (39%)

-        42 % respondents said they always watch and listen to the safety demonstration attentively on every flight. 29% of respondents confirmed not paying any attention to the safety demonstration.

-        42% respondents think that our domestic airlines are not transparent about the costs included in booking a flight (e.g. meal costs, extra baggage) while 35% believe that the domestic airlines are transparent with all booking costs.

Metro Meter

In a comparison between the 6 metro cities:

-    Mumbai & Chennai have clear loyalties towards Jet Airways as favourite domestic airline whereas Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata are IndiGo loyalists. Delhi seems tied in the toss-up between the two airlines.

-       Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata give the safety vote to IndiGo followed by Jet Airways. Mumbai & Chennai give the safety vote clearly to Jet Airways while Delhi is tied.

-   Mumbai surpasses all cities in terms of checking in online, whereas Hyderabad respondents showed lowest adoption of web check in facility.  

-     Home town Bangalore is most optimistic about Kingfisher’s revival within the next 6 months to a year. Across cities 2/3rd or more respondents believe that the airline will revive definitely - whether in the short or long term. However, Hyderabad seems least optimistic about Kingfisher’s future.

-     Hyderabad had the highest percentage of respondents who follow airlines on social media.

-     Hyderabad is the most heedful to the safety demo on flights followed by Delhi.