A DISPARITY exists between supply and demand for LCC content on online travel agency websites, as revealed in a poll conducted by Abacus International in August with 62 agencies invested in the online space.
According to the poll, 42 per cent of the respondents acknowledged LCCs as having a “major presence” in their markets, but 60 per cent were unable to display and sell their inventory.
Only 29 per cent had agreements with LCCs, while the rest either excluded them from their search results or, as one in seven admitted, ‘screen-scrape’ the LCCs’ sites for the sake of content comprehensiveness.
Greater supply-demand disparity was shown with almost a third stating “we ignore LCCs and focus on airlines that can be booked through our online booking engine”.
Another disparity the poll uncovered was where agencies are able to offer LCCs, one third cited a problem with ancillaries in quoting the total price.
Martin Symes, vice president product and marketing at Abacus explained: “An LCC’s absence places the carrier, the intermediary and the consumer at a disadvantage.”
“In other parts of the world, we have witnessed major LCCs work to gain share of the higher yielding corporate market, by evolving their products and GDS participation levels. It will be interesting to see if this is replicated here in Asia.”
