9 key success factors to maximise ancillary revenue

In the process of putting together the World Low Cost Airlines Congress, we have the privilege of speaking to many top level execs from LCCs, many of whom are obsessing over how to maximise ancillary revenue.

I don’t purport to have a magic formula after the research we did, but we did identify a few key factors. Here are 9 of them:

1) Figure out what you can, and what you cannot charge for. How can you work around regional restrictions to introduce new ancillary services?

2) Ensure any additional charges you introduce doesn’t drive traffic to competitors

3) Strike the right balance between ‘optional service’ and ‘hidden cost’

4) Find a strategy that enables you to best work with travel agents, OTA, GDS & 3rd party distributors to push the big 3 and ensure the additional revenue comes home

5) Increase in-path merchandising while driving the look-to-book ratio

6) Improve transparency of surcharges to comply with regulations & avoid penalties

7) Explore thoroughly the costs vs benefits of offering on-board infotainment and internet

Optimise payment systems to facilitate secure, real-time and on-demand IFE

9) Apply retail management principles to increase in-flight merchandising

These are just a few of the factors we identified. Let me know if you think I’ve missed some really obvious ones.

Also, I’ve come across  a great report by Jay Sorensen of Ideaworks that really nails the issue on the head. Check it out here.