Lfan Yang, sales and marketing director (left), said that currently it was achieving 75% direct sales.
As the only low cost airline in China, Yang said Spring Airlines’ main mission was to reduce costs including channel costs. “We are dedicated to online sales,” he said. “We are a small airline and our customers are price-sensitive so price is the top issue with us.”
Based in Shanghai’s Hongqiao Airport, Spring Airlines’ 17 Airbus A320 jets fly passengers to over 55 routes within mainland China and recently it added Hong Kong and Japan to its network.
In July, Spring Airlines reported a half-year net profit of CNY160 million ($23.6 million), a fourfold year-over-year improvement, maintaining a profit streak that goes back five years. Spring has also said it plans to open international routes to Korea and other South-east Asian countries.
Speaking as part of a panel on “The future role of travel search” at the China Travel Distribution Summit, he said that Spring did not depend too much on search marketing but rather its own publicity efforts. For example, he said after it issued a press release on its second route from Hong Kong to Shanghai, it saw an immediate rise in visits to its website.
“We thank Baidu and Google for their natural search,” he said. Right now, he noted that traffic was coming from search sites such as Baidu, Google, Kuxun, Qunar and Ren Ren.
Wei Liu, general manager of search engine marketing of Baidu, China’s largest search site, said that while areas such as transportation, accommodation and routes were well-covered in terms of content but one category of content that was missing was in scenic spots.
“Very few companies are engaged in that space – such as where to find the best food in Lijiang. It’s hard to find that information – that’s the problem we have to solve,” she said.
This, the panelists agreed, would move users from price search to information search.
Ivan Zhang, CEO of travel search engine Kuxun (left), later commented on Google’s acquisition of ITA Software, saying that it showed that the general search engines wanted to solve specific issues. “However I believe Baidu and Google cannot do everything,” he said.
Kuxun was acquired by TripAdvisor in October 2009. This followed TripAdvisor’s entry into China with the launch of DaoDao in April that year.
At the time, TripAdvisor’s chief executive Stephen Kaufer said the company planned to invest more than US$50 million in China through late 2011.
Featured image credit : www.planespotters.net
