Its most recent addition is the My25% programme which delivers a 25% discount to subscribers who pay an annual fee.
IdeaWorksCompany has identified the airlines in 2014 that have been smartest in the areas of ancillary revenue, a la carte pricing, and loyalty marketing.
Spain’s low-cost Vueling Airlines was named the top Revenue Innovation Champ for 2014. Since the airline was born in 2004, it has experienced a merger, been acquired by a global holding company, and achieved robust growth.
“Year after year, the carrier has also demonstrated a knack to create, market, and deliver remarkable ancillary revenue products,” reported IdeaWorksCompany.
Its most recent addition is the My25% programme which delivers a 25% discount to subscribers who pay an annual fee.
Earlier innovations included a price lock feature and the Vueling Pass which sells an annual package of benefits for business travellers. All these have since been adopted by other carriers around the world.
The top five revenue innovators named by IdeaWorksCompany also include Delta Air Lines, Wizz Air, Ryanair, and South Korea’s budget carrier, Jeju Air.
In related news Vueling has become the first airline in the world to implement contactless systems for paying with cell phones.
On its app the pioneering Barcelona-based airline has deployed two revolutionary systems —Near Field Communication (NFC), and Scanning— to enable users to automatically enter their personal and credit card data during the purchase process.
The two systems are available for telephones using the Android operating system. For security’s sake they are enabled only to fill in the data, but not to complete the purchase.
A version for the Apple iOS is initially confined to storing credit card data which can be retrieved only upon detection of the user’s finger print when needed for a purchase.