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Emirates and Etihad have emerged as the region’s best-regarded airlines in a comprehensive syndicated study on the travel industry in the UAE and KSA. The study was conducted by Maktoob Research, the full-service online research unit of Maktoob.com. Titled ‘The TravelMonitor’, the study canvassed the opinions of 894 UAE and 1,191 Saudi adult residents who travel at least once a year, and covered topics ranging from travel preferences and trends, brand awareness and usage, customer satisfaction levels and customer needs in both the airline and hospitality sectors.
According to the study’s findings, while Emirates emerged a clear winner in KSA, leading the table in terms of overall customer satisfaction, the Dubai-based airline faced stiff competition on its home turf and had to share the top spot with Etihad, the UAE’s national carrier. Emirates also led the way in terms of ‘brand awareness’ and ‘usage’ among travelers from the UAE, while in KSA, national carrier Saudi Airlines claimed the top spot in both categories. Emirates and Saudi Airlines, however, were voted the most expensive airlines in the UAE and KSA markets respectively.
Interestingly, although Emirates and Etihad jointly led the customer satisfaction rankings in the UAE, the latter seemed to have the edge when it came to ‘airline image’, coming out top in most of the individual categories.
In the hospitality sector, Jumeirah and Shangri-La led all hotels in the UAE in terms of overall customer satisfaction, while Hilton topped the list in KSA, followed closely by InterContinental. Hilton also scored impressively in the ‘usage’ index, leading the rankings in the UAE while coming in second behind Holiday Inn in KSA.
Tamara Deprez, General Manager of Maktoob Research, said, “The survey provides valuable insights into the preferences and changing requirements of today’s travelers, allowing industry players to draw credible inferences as to where they stand, how they match up to their peers and what they must do to improve their competitive standing.”
Referring to the findings of the survey on airline industry, Deprez added, “It is significant to note that customer satisfaction levels of several leading airlines such as Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways have actually shown an increase this year. This demonstrates that despite the tough times faced by the airline industry due to the global economic downturn, these airlines have not compromised on service quality.”
Among the key findings of the survey are:
- Emirates Airline led the way in terms of overall customer satisfaction, emerging a clear winner in KSA with a score of 9 on a 10-point scale (as against 8.5 in 2008) and sharing the top spot with Etihad in the UAE with a score of 8.7 (as against 8.3 last year)
- Emirates was also voted the most ideal airline for business travelers by both UAE and Saudi travelers
- Notwithstanding Emirates’ impressive performance, the big winner in the UAE this year was Etihad – as well as becoming the joint leader in overall customer satisfaction by raising its score dramatically from 7.8 in 2008 to 8.7 this year, the airline topped the list in a number of individual categories such as ‘Comfort’, ‘Efficiency’, ‘Innovation’, ‘Customer Focus’, ‘Luxury’, ‘Distinctive Style’, ‘Reliability’, ‘Family-Friendliness’ and ‘Value-for-Money’
- However, while Etihad put on a stellar showing in the UAE, the airline wasn’t quite able to make the same impression on the Saudi traveler, failing to take the top spot in even a single category although its scores did climb appreciably in most of the indexes
- Qatar Airways fared impressively this year – the airline came second and third in overall customer satisfaction in the KSA and UAE markets respectively and made significant gains in several key categories
- In a rather interesting result, while Etihad replaced Qatar Airways as the most value-for-money airline in the UAE, the latter promptly dislodged Etihad from its position as the most value-for-money airline in KSA, sharing the honour with Emirates
- Travelers from both the UAE and KSA picked a round-the-world trip as their dream holiday destination
- Interestingly, both UAE and KSA travelers picked ‘Accurate Takeoff And Landing Timing’ as the factor that contributes most to an ideal flight experience, even ahead of a ‘Comfortable And Safe Flight’
- In the hospitality sector, Hilton led the way in terms of brand awareness in both the UAE (74%) and KSA (70%); the figures represent a rise of 12% and 8% respectively compared to the previous year. In terms of usage, Hilton came first in the UAE (18%), while Holiday Inn (20%) took the top spot in KSA
- Hyatt looks poised to be the big gainer in the UAE hospitality scene, with 23% respondents saying they intend to stay at the hotel in the next year. The figure is all the more remarkable considering that the hotel’s current usage is only 9%
- Hilton, Jumeirah and Hyatt were voted the most expensive hotels in the UAE; Hilton, incidentally, was viewed as the most expensive hotel by Saudi respondents as well
- Shangri-La and Kempinski were voted the most value-for-money hotels in the UAE, ahead of Hyatt, Jumeirah and last year’s winner Radisson, while Inter-Continental replaced Marriott as the most value-for-money hotel in KSA.
The Maktoob Research TravelMonitor study also examined a host of other travel-related trends and consumer attitudes. For airlines, it surveyed several aspects that determine passenger experience and influence customer perception such as safety and security, ticket fare, in-flight service quality, seating comfort, aircraft cleanliness, attitude and friendliness of cabin staff, adherence to schedule, availability of newspapers and magazines, efficiency of check-in and boarding, grooming and appearance of cabin staff, handling of delays and cancellations, and in-flight entertainment selection, in addition to overall satisfaction level, brand awareness and usage. A similar set of indexes were used to assess customer perception of major hotel brands.
With online information and e-booking playing a critical role in the modern travel industry, The TravelMonitor took special note of airline and hotel websites, asking travelers to rate individual websites for their customer service content, ease of navigation, online reservation facilities, and payment options, among other factors. The study also assessed customer satisfaction across various categories for business class, first class and frequent flyers.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
