Despite the ongoing airline chaos, Pathmatics data, one of Sensor Tower’s platforms, has shown that domestic airlines still spend heavily on advertising, encouraging consumers to travel.
Commentating on the trends, Tom Cui, Managing Director APAC at Sensor Tower, says: The 2022 travel season is full in Australia after two consecutive years of COVID-related disruptions.
Unsurprisingly, app downloads for both AU’s top and international airlines have increased since borders reopened in February 2022, seeing a huge spike in June 2022 when a record number of flights were cancelled or ran late.
New data from market intelligence company Sensor Tower has revealed that Aussies are spending nearly 20% more time in our nation’s top airline apps as they battle the airline crisis, navigating flight cancellations, missing baggage and chaos at airports.
There was then a huge spike in app downloads in June 2022, following only 63 per cent of Qantas, Virgin and Jetstar flights arriving on time, where Aussies were using the apps to navigate the delays. Analysing time spent in each app, most Aussie airlines have seen up to a 17% increase in average daily time spent in-app. As Australian airlines continue to be pummelled by the COVID-19 pandemic, Sensor Tower data has revealed:
Australia’s airline and airport mayhem was first reported in April, just before the Easter holidays, when the number of passengers flying domestically was the highest since the pandemic began. Sensor Tower data has revealed a huge increase in app downloads and an increasing amount of time spent on these apps as consumers flock back to airports.
Interestingly, the daily average time spent on the Qantas app has returned to where it was at the start of the year but grew considerably in April when Australia’s aviation chaos began. Those airline apps with a user-friendly experience will be best placed to help brands bounce back from Australia’s airline crisis, further easing the burden on staff and regaining the trust of consumers.
“Ongoing weather-related events aren’t helping the situation either, and we’re regularly reminded of the chaos with consumers posting videos of queues snaking out of check-in terminals. This has continued into July as many Aussies look to flock overseas to escape the winter weather.
Qantas Airways is the most downloaded app, followed by Virgin Australia and Jetstar. This follows the news that Qantas asked execs to handle baggage last month. Virgin Australia will follow in Qantas’s footsteps as it grounds all international flights for two and a half months and halves its domestic flights.
“We expect the Christmas holiday period to be a busy one this year and at Sensor Tower we’ll be keeping our finger on the pulse of these aviation brands to reveal consumer trends.” This is reflected in Sensor Tower data which shows all seven airline app downloads increased from March to April. Despite this surge in demand, airlines have had to deal with a troublesome mix of pent-up travel demand with uneven resources and labour shortages. Perhaps more notable is that active users for major airlines such as Qantas Airways and Virgin Australia have recently surpassed pre-pandemic levels. This has led to unprecedented flight cancellations and delays for many Aussies.
