Seasoned travellers most likely to book flights on mobile apps

The most active business travellers are most likely to book flights on their smartphone, according to research conducted by travel management platform CWT. Travellers who make more than five trips a year are 13% more likely to book on their smartphone, according to the research, while travellers revisiting a location are 11% more likely to do so. “The findings are clear: the more you travel, the more you use your smartphone, and that includes booking your flights directly through an app,” said Amit Wurgaft, CWT’s Chief Experience Officer, Digital. “Booking on your mobile device requires a level of confidence, born from experience. This is also why travellers are more likely to book on mobile when they have visited the destination in the past.” CWT claims mobile bookings are also more likely to be in higher fare classes. Compared to bookings made on a computer, bookings made on a smartphone are 15.8% more likely to be Business Class, 15% more likely to be Premium Economy, and 8.4% more likely to be First Class. The results also show there is a correlation between when people book and how they book. The closer the departure date, the more inclined travellers are to book through their mobiles. 62% of mobile bookings are done between one day and one week prior to departure, but only 28% of computer bookings are done during that time. Meanwhile, when it comes to self-serviced business trips, desktop leads the way at 80%, mobile booking ranks second at 15%, and tablets score 5%. The survey also shows that 73.5% of travellers book their flights at the office, regardless of the channel. However, if they book their flights at home, they are 12% more likely to book on mobile. The survey was conducted online by CWT on March 2019. Responses were collected from 594 business travellers who work at large companies (>1,000 employees) with a travel policy and specific booking tools. Respondents were from Australia, Canada, France, the UK, and the US.