Photo Credit: Courtesy of J.D. Power
Michael Taylor is the managing director of travel, hospitality and retail at J.D. Power.
Americans are taking to the skies more than ever before. Continued pent-up demand from the pandemic has resulted in passengers returning in droves to air travel, whether they are heading to their favorite vacation destinations, visiting relatives or resuming business travel.
With that uptick in traffic, some airports are more crowded than ever before, and it's not all experienced travelers packing the terminals. In fact, according to new data from J.D. Power, today's air travelers are less experienced than in previous years.
That may not necessarily come as a surprise to any seasoned travelers who have braved the skies lately. Sometimes, it's passengers crowding the gates before boarding -- a phenomenon many airline employees have started referring to pejoratively as "gate lice." Other times, "completely full flights" may be causing longer-than-ever boarding and disembarking processes with inexperienced travelers holding up the entire boarding process or travelers turning their seat into their own personal living room. Regardless, travelers are eschewing common courtesy and etiquette, making entire planeloads of people exasperated. Even those that have not experienced this phenomenon firsthand have almost certainly seen at least one viral video of airline customers behaving badly on a flight.
While tolerating this type of behavior may seem like a rite of passage for those who need to get where they're going, it poses a major problem for airlines. When accompanied by inconsistent fares and persistent delays, more experienced and -- most importantly -- more frequent flyers are growing less satisfied with North American airlines over the past two years. That presents a very real challenge: manage this new reality of air travel or risk being left behind by both old and new customers alike.
Understanding the new passenger landscape
Most analyses of the current challenges facing the airline industry have focused purely on the volume of passengers and corresponding lack of pilots and other airline staff to handle the onslaught. Those observations are correct: a record 2.9 million people made their way through U.S. airports, security checkpoints and jetways this past July 4 weekend, and passenger volume continued to stay high all summer. Meanwhile, a shortage of pilots, flight crews, air traffic controllers and other critical personnel has resulted in fewer scheduled flights, more crowded planes, more cancellations and a higher concentration of passengers at airport gate areas.
What those high-level economics-style snapshots of supply and demand miss, however, is the underlying psychology of the average airline traveler and the details of their complete passenger experience. As noted previously, we're seeing an increase in less-seasoned travelers on North American flights. In our recent airline benchmark survey, we found that approximately 15% of travelers flying on major airlines were taking their first flight in two years or more. We're also seeing the number of leisure travelers far outstrip business travelers by a rate of roughly 3-to-1. Put these two variables together with the increase in total passenger volume, reduction in number of available flights and high number of canceled flights, and the scene is set for a volatile and defensive passenger experience.
For an example of this perfect storm in action, look no further than the weeklong string of airline cancellations during the 2022 Christmas week. Many passengers didn't anticipate problems that would arise from nationwide inclement weather. Most had no backup plan in the event of a flight cancellation, and a good portion of those would have had no idea how to even make one. It sounds like a live-and-learn moment until one realizes that the customer's frustration must go somewhere. And as the most visible element of air travel, that means airlines are often on the receiving end.
How airlines can adjust
That's not to say that some airlines haven't played a part in these frustrations. Communication customers receive from airlines is often poor, as many customers end up finding out about flight delays and cancellations from a third-party flight-tracker app before the airline gate personnel do. What's more, when airlines do have to inconvenience their travelers, whether those problems are outside of their control (weather) or firmly within (system failure), airlines tend to couch the facts in vague terms to avoid the immediate backlash or liability. That only makes matters worse if customers find out the airline is, in fact, to blame.
Airlines will have to adjust to thrive in this new environment. Communication should be proactive and direct. That could include information about travel options, nearby hotels in the event of an overnight delay or even best practices for passenger conduct.
Protocols also need to be in place to ensure cross-company coordination. For example, gate employees must have the most up-to-date information so that they won't be caught off guard when a customer has conflicting intel from an app. Part of that will be updating dated, cumbersome and, in some cases, obsolete technological infrastructure. These actions should also help avoid more systemwide failures like the one that was to blame for last winter's mass flight cancellations.
Meeting them where they are
Like so much else, the pandemic truly changed the game when it came to air travel. And while more passengers are now more likely to be more sporadic and less savvy fliers, it creates a golden opportunity for airlines to win over a new subsection of customers while retaining the seasoned veterans.
Any air voyage is a potential reputation-ruining or reputation-defining moment for airlines. Customer dissatisfaction is often misunderstood; companies always think they'll have a chance to repair a relationship gone awry.
When J. D. Power asks "why did you choose this airline?" the top answer is "offered a direct flight." The second-most cited reason is "past experience." The truth is that many customers who feel an airline has not treated them fairly store that in their memory banks and simply choose another airline for their next trip, no matter how good the ticket price. We call those experiences an "extinction event." If airlines want to avoid that quiet exodus, they need to adjust to the new breed airline passenger. Invest in customer-responsive systems, be forthright in communications and educate their front-line employees -- or risk being left behind.