Bernhard Hain, AirPlus

Low-cost carriers now control almost a third of the market. In order for low-cost airlines to live up to their name for business travelers, however, they need to adapt their booking processes to meet companies’ expectations.

Low-cost carriers have ascended to dizzying heights in the past few years: 20% annual growth rates have resulted in nearly every third passenger in Europe booking his or her trip on a low-cost airline. Even though growth has slowed down considerably this year, 40 airlines in Europe cover a capacity of 6 million seats on almost 6,000 travel routes. RyanAir, the European market leader, alone offered over 1,200 routes at a “no-frills” cost.

Low-cost carriers are increasingly being used by “normal” passengers, and these airlines are also becoming attractive to small and mid-sized companies. Many of them offer similarly high standards of quality to the established airlines.

But just because they fly in the same calm air space as established airlines doesn’t mean that “turbulence” on the ground can be ruled out: in addition to the often decisive question of distance from the airport to the point of departure and actually intended arrival, it can be “annoying” (to put it mildly) when the flight bookings cannot be integrated into a company’s accounting system. For a travel manager, the most important thing is whether and how well the data can be integrated into existing accounting and reporting systems. The potential savings made at a discount airline will only be fully justified when this data can be entered seamlessly into existing business processes – otherwise, the potential benefits are outweighed by the additional work and operating expense. If, for example, business travelers have to buy a “no-frills” ticket with their private credit card, then important billing data are lost to the firm or must be added in manually – and that is expensive.

This “Achilles heel” in the battle for business travelers has been acknowledged by many low-cost carriers, many of which now offer systems which can be actively tailored to meet the needs of travel managers. Among other things, for example, many low-cost airlines now accept the AirPlus Company Account as a form of payment, which allows important information such as personal identification number, project number or cost center to be registered at the time of booking.