Airline Ancillary Revenue Projected to Be $92.9 Billion Worldwide in 2018

Nov 27, 2018

The CarTrawler global estimate forecasts 13% increase above 2017, with $64.8 billion of the total consisting of a la carte fee activity.

Dublin, Ireland, 27 November, 2018:  IdeaWorksCompany, the foremost consultancy on airline ancillary revenue, and CarTrawler, the leading provider of online car rental distribution systems, project airline ancillary revenue will reach $92.9 billion worldwide in 2018.  The CarTrawler Worldwide Estimate of Ancillary Revenue represents a 312% increase from the 2010 figure of $22.6 billion, which was the first annual ancillary revenue estimate.

Earlier this year, CarTrawler and IdeaWorksCompany reported the ancillary revenue disclosed by 73 airlines for 2017.  These statistics were applied to a larger list of 175 airlines to provide a truly global projection of ancillary revenue activity by the world’s airlines for 2018. The CarTrawler Worldwide Estimate of Ancillary Revenue marks the ninth year IdeaWorksCompany has prepared a projection of ancillary revenue activity.

Ancillary revenue is generated by activities and services that yield cashflow for airlines beyond the simple transportation of customers from A to B.  This wide range of activities includes commissions gained from hotel bookings, the sale of frequent flyer miles to partners, and the provision of a la carte services − providing more options for consumers and more profit for airlines.

Nearly $93 billion in revenue indicates that good merchandisers are selling products desired by a vast number of customers.  IATA estimates more than 4.3 billion travellers will depart on flights in 2018.  Most of them now have the choice of paying a little extra for more comfort and convenience – thus providing airlines with a golden opportunity to build and strengthen their customer experience in the long-term.

Aileen McCormack, Chief Commercial Officer at CarTrawler.

Analysis performed by IdeaWorksCompany during the past eight years reveals natural airline groupings (or categories) based upon a carrier’s ability to generate ancillary revenue.  The “percentage of revenue” results associated with four defined categories have been applied to a worldwide compilation of operating revenue disclosed by 175 airlines.

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