Poles more eager to fly abroad
Flight tickets search sites attract users
Poles are getting savvy at comparing offers and searching out bargains. Hence the growing popularity of online flight booking agencies reflected in data on the number of visits recorded for websites featuring search engines. Compared to last year, the number of persons who use them increased by a tenth (from 684 thousand in April 2013 to 765 thousand in April 2014).
The flight tickets search engine most often visited was Esky.pl, used by 408 thousand internet users in April 2014. Half as much or less users were noted for: Fly4free.pl (202 thousand) and Skyscanner.pl (172 thousand). Biletylotnicze.pl, a portal taken over by Esky.pl in 2011, was visited by 119 thousand persons looking for flights. The latter is also the most dynamically developing one. Between January and April, the number of Biletylotnicze.pl users increased by more than a half (from 67 thousand to 119 thousand individuals).
From flight search to Ryanair tickets
In the first quarter of 2014 the websites belonging to the largest low-cost airlines in Poland, i.e. Ryanair and Wizzair, were visited on average by 400 and 350 thousand internet users, respectively (monthly data). When compared to the previous year, one can observe that the Ryanair website enjoys greater popularity and a slight decrease can be noticed in this respect of the Wizzair online service. Moreover, it turns out that Ryanair clients use low-cost flight search engines more often (majority of Ryanair.com users). The shared audience results for websites of the airlines and flight booking portals provide evidence for that.
"The current situation may be the effect of a long-term strategy adopted by Ryanair, which has been trying to attract customers with the lowest prices for a number of years now" comments[nbsp]Maciej Milewski, business consultant at Gemius.[nbsp]"Wizzair, on the other hand, positioning itself as a provider of good value for money services, may have a slightly larger base of loyal customers, who book tickets on the website without looking any alternative offers" the expert adds.
In his opinion, this is indicative of the increasing interest of customers in abroad flights, which is a by-product of the improving tourist services market situation. "A holiday abroad is now within the reach of more Poles, yet the price is still the decisive factor when choosing an offer. The airlines with the lowest prices will benefit and so will the portals that help customers find the cheapest tickets" Milewski sums up.
The data quoted originates from an international internet study measurement (gemiusAudience) conducted by Gemius in more than 35 countries. It aims to research into the number and demographic profile of internet users and the manner in which they utilize the web, audio and wideo content, as well as mobile applications. The study is perfomed according to Gemius proprietary hybrid methodology and in accordance with the ICC/ESOMAR international code of conduct.
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