Jet Airways has shown signs of revival in not just its financial books but also in travellers’ choice. The airline, which was far behind industry leader IndiGo, is now neck-to-neck with it as per the latest TripAdvisor annual India Air Travel Survey.

While 37.74 per cent of the passengers voted IndiGo as their most preferred domestic airline, as many as 37.33 per cent preferred Jet Airways. IndiGo last year had a lead of 8 per cent over Jet. 

Air India improves show National carrier Air India, which was voted as the least preferred airline for four years in a row, upped its ante and became the third. Jet Airways also came out as the third most preferred airline for international travel, trumping Lufthansa. Emirates remained the most preferred, fifth year in a row, followed by Singapore Airlines. Jet seems to be doing very well on many parameters — food and beverage, in-flight entertainment, both cabin crew appearance and cabin crew service quality, check-in process at the airport, seat comfort/leg room, in-flight shopping, customer service and even on ‘overall experience’, Jet was preferred over Indigo. 

However, the ‘favourite’ airline i.e., IndiGo, does win with a high margin on the following parameters — time taken to deliver baggage and in-cabin maintenance.

When it comes to the online experience (website), Jet scores significantly higher than Indigo, reflecting its recent investments into building a new website etc. However, on the parameters of ‘value for money’ and ‘on-time performance’ — Indigo still remains the clear winner — indicating that Jet has its task cut out when it comes to being seen as great value by the price-conscious Indian flier.

With regard to booking tickets, the survey highlights the diminishing importance of travel agents — both online and offline. “Indian air booking is increasingly becoming a supplier-direct market, as is the case in more developed travel markets around the world - 68 per cent of Indians now book directly with the airline, perhaps knowing that this is where they will get the best deal/price,” said Nikhil Ganju, Country Manager, TripAdvisor. Almost 25 per cent Indians recognise the importance of price-comparison sites — especially because 64 per cent visit 3 to more than 5 sites while shopping for flights. Only 6 per cent are brand loyal to one website, while another 35 per cent shop at between 1 and 2 sites.

Again, 74 per cent said it was ‘very important’ to use a flight search price comparison site — indicating perhaps an opportunity in the market. Flash sales seemed to have become the biggest driver for airline tickets. A good 45 per cent respondents said they have bought flight tickets on sale — indicating the growing popularity of these tactics among India’s airlines. 

Price sensitivity Indicating price sensitivity, as many as 20 per cent respondents said that they are willing to even change their destination or travel dates if tickets are on sale.

Only 9.22 per cent have not used their smartphone to do some flight related activity - 72 per cent have researched flights, 60 per cent have checked-in, 52 per cent have actually booked.

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