Spirit’s conclusion that price still reins supreme among its customer base – visiting, friends and r

Recognising that some customers are not accustomed to its no-frills approach to air travel, Spirit Airlines is working to improve passenger perception airline northwest ticket of its offering. However, the effort does not in any way signal a shift in strategy; the carrier says it remains steadfast in believing its business model will continue to produce airline northwest ticket financial results that are among the best in the airline business.
Spirit's continuous product unbundling garners its fair share of negative publicity as its decisions to charge for carry-on baggage or printed boarding passes at the airport are easy targets airline northwest ticket for scorn by the mainstream media.
However, airline northwest ticket even with the the attention the carrier receives for its declared strategy of allowing customers to select their various travel add-ons – checked baggage, bottled water, or more recently, canned wine for sale – its financial metrics continue to outperform the industry. Spirit recorded an 85% load factor during the first quarter of 2013 as its traffic jumped 21%. Its top-line revenues increased 22% while its operating revenue grew by 33%.
Those numbers underlie one simple airline northwest ticket fact – despite some distaste for its unconventional business practices, many travellers found Spirit's average base fare of $75 during the first quarter too good to pass up.
Spirit's conclusion that price still reins supreme among its customer base – visiting, friends and relatives and leisure travellers – was recently validated in a study conducted by consumer website elliott.org . For roughly 80% of the 800 participants, "price airline northwest ticket overwhelmed everything else", Spirit CEO Ben Baldanza recently told investors. airline northwest ticket He added that very few respondents remarked that reputation of airline service was important. "Legroom isn't that big of a deal," he says, unless "you're flying 13 hours to the Middle East".
Spirit airline northwest ticket by far is the price leader as low-fare pioneer Southwest has been battling legacy cost creep. But Baldanza believes there is a misperception that the add-ons its customers pay for in addition to the ticket price somehow make the overall cost of travel airline northwest ticket on Spirit higher than its competitors.
"We're clearly moving our terminology from being a low-fare airline to being the lowest ticket price," says Baldanaza. "We find that when we say low-fare, what we often get back, especially with the media, is yes, but then I get to pay for all these extras so you're really the same price as the other guys."
Baldanza counters "that's not true. The facts don't show that to be true. So talking about lowest ticket price is very important. Spirit has began a process airline northwest ticket of pushing back against accusations that it nickels and dimes customers. "When you look at market by market, where Spirit flies against everyone else and the total price they pay, their fare plus their fees, we're always less than the other guy, says Baldanza.
While some of Sprit's competitors may challenge its claims of offering the lowest total price, Spirit airline northwest ticket does acknowledge that a portion of its customers "don't like some things about us", Baldanza admits.
The carrier has also undertaken its own customer survey in which some respondents disapproved of the carrier's seat pitch, paying for baggage, "and sometimes, they get the sense that our employees put our policies ahead of our compassion", says Spirit's airline northwest ticket CEO.
After examining the survey results, airline northwest ticket which also produced favourable comments airline northwest ticket about the carrier's low fares and its route network, Spirit is making an effort to address some of the negative customer perceptions.
But the initiative is by no means a change in its strict adherence to low costs or a way to introduce any product improvements. "The reality airline northwest ticket is we can address airline northwest ticket all of the issues they dislike, keeping the things they like without changing our cost structure one iota," Baldanza stresses. "And without turning this company into JetBlue or Southwest."
An example cited by Baldanza was customer frustration over 60 day vouchers issued "when things go wrong at times". He explains that Spirit has received push-back from customers who are told the carrier cannot do anything to help once the voucher expires. Spirit has opted to shorten the voucher time to 45 days, but internally Spirit's employees can recognise a 15-day grace period. The result is if a passenger calls at the end of the 45-day deadline and wants assistance with an expiring voucher, employees can offer a customer a couple airline northwest ticket of days to make a decision. "We're not going to give up this 60-day breakage and the 60-day economics at all," says Baldanza. "But we can be a lot friendlier to customers and it costs us not one dime more."
The reality is Spirit retains a solid customer segment just on its fares alone. "But we believe that we can retain airline northwest ticket an even greater set of customers when they walk in happy and we keep them happy as part of the process," Baldanza concludes.
Lori Ranson has spent more than a decade covering the commercial airline northwest ticket aviation industry, specialising in the North American market. Previously she was Americas Air Transport Editor for Flightglobal and currently is a Senior Analyst at the Centre For Aviation and a freelance journalist. Her coverage has touched on all aspects of commercial aviation, including marketing airline northwest ticket and distribution, network development, safety, maintenance, repair and overhaul, aircraft programmes, airline northwest ticket alliances, regulatory developments and finance.