Business Travelers Favor Qantas Over Virgin

27th May 2013

Qantas will not have to worry about losing its share in the premium travel market so soon as most of Australia's business travelers still prefer flying with the Red Roo over its closest rival, Virgin Australia.

In the most recent report conducted by Roy Morgan Research, a significant portion of the business travelers consider flying with Qantas on their next travel. Compared to Virgin Australia's 58%, Qantas has a captive market share of 71% in the last 12 months ending March 2013.

In early 2012, Virgin started to offer business class for its domestic flights and has consistently attracted loyal travelers building its client base over time. Qantas, however, make it sure that its rival will not lure away more than half of the total market in the segment. To keep its market share from eroding substantially, Qantas launched various product innovations as well as service improvements. As a result, it was able to post gains in the last six months before March 2013.

The routes that trigger dog-eat-dog competition between the two rivals in the business travel sector are Perth-Sydney, Perth-Melbourne and Perth-Brisbane. The data was sourced was from Jane Ianniello, the International Director of Tourism, Travel & Leisure of Roy Morgan Research.

In particular, Qantas is about to introduce a standard table service for business class on the said routes towards the end of May. Both airlines are also in the process of improving their services on the east-west flights.

In the latest survey, however, it showed that the clear winner in the race to the top of the board is Air New Zealand. The airline was favored by a whooping 83% of the business travelers across the Tasman Sea on their next trip.