Ancillary fees — the extra fees passengers pay for baggage, premium seats and others — is now one of the biggest revenue drives for the global airline industry, so much so that it has almost single handedly been responsible for airlines having a great 2013.
In 2012, global airlines collectively reported about $27.1 billion in ancillaries, up about 20 percent from 2011, a huge jump by any standards in a mature industry.
But which airlines are the most dependent on these extra fees for their overall revenues?
The latest IdeaWorksCompany’s CarTrawler Review of Ancillary Revenue Results for 2012 study gives us the numbers, and low cost airlines dominate the top list, for obvious reasons: extra fees is how they make their money, on top of low-cost-no-frills basic service.
Worldwide, Spirit Airlines maintained its top position in this list with a nearly 10 point lead over its closest low-cost peer.
Detractors and complainers be damned, consumers continue to choose the carrier’s “ultra low cost” methods: traffic is up more than 22 percent and load factors were virtually unchanged for 2012 compared to the prior year.
Top 10 Airlines – Ancillary Revenue as a % of Total Revenue
| Annual Results – 2012 | Annual Results – 2011 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spirit | 38.5% | Spirit | 33.2% | |
| Allegiant | 29.9% | Jet2.com | 27.1% | |
| Jet2.com | 26.5% | Allegiant | 27.0% | |
| Ryanair | 21.8% | easyJet | 20.8% | |
| Tiger Airways | 20.8% | Ryanair | 20.5% | |
| easyJet* | 19.5% | Tiger Airways | 19.1% | |
| AirAsia X | 18.7% | AirAsia Group | 17.8% | |
| Jetstar | 18.6% | Flybe | 17.0% | |
| AirAsia Group | 18.2% | AirAsia X | 16.5% | |
| Flybe | 17.7% | Jetstar | 15.3% |
2012 carrier results were based on recent 12-month financial period disclosures.
* IdeaWorksCompany estimated easyJet 2012 amount based upon 2011 results and subsequent disclosures.
SEE ALSO: The 20 Best Airlines In The World
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