Flyers headed to West Coast spend most in-flight
Air travelers going to the West Coast are the biggest in-flight spenders according to a review of in-flight sales on US airlines.
GuestLogix, which manages in-flight payment systems for around 90% of North American airlines said passengers traveling to Seattle, San Francisco and Las Vegas make the most onboard purchases on average.
The firm gave a snapshot of sales data, recorded from November 2013 to February 2014 which found that passengers spent $75.7 million on food, drinks and extra passenger comforts such as in-flight entertainment.
It found that flyers en route to Las Vegas spend more on in-flight beverages than to any other North American destination.
Beverages were the most popular item overall making up 58% of all in-flight sales, followed by food.
"Four years ago we were seeing about 7% of passengers buying at least one item but now we’re running at over 12%, and the trend keeps going up,” said Guestlogix CEO Brett Proud.
Proud also noted more purchases are made on Sundays than any other day of the week.
He said Sundays see a wider mix of passengers with "both business people flying the second half of day into night to get ready for Monday meetings, combined with a lot of people coming back home from a weekend away.”
One reason for the increase of in-flight sales is the ‘self-service model’ of being able to order a meal or in-flight entertainment by simply tapping a screen, Proud says.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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