Russian LCC Pobeda to drive up direct bookings via its website to 82%

LCC continues to demonstrate the highest traffic growth rate among Russia’s top-five. In June it carried 905,000 passengers, up by 43.2 per cent on the same month of last year (Pobeda)

Pobeda Airlines, which is part of Aeroflot Group and is Russia’s only low-cost carrier (LCC), has announced plans to elevate direct bookings via its official site to 82 per cent. As a by-product of encouraging passengers to purchase tickets via its website or mobile app the airline is also hoping to increase its ancillary revenues.

To foster further on-line purchasing via its website, Pobeda has scrapped the two per cent fee for on-line transactions imposed by banks. “Right now 72 per cent of our customers purchase tickets using our website or the mobile app, and we are in direct contact with them having access to their request and [their] purchase history, so we can offer personal discounts and promotional codes,” comments Pobeda Airlines’ general director Andrey Kalmykov. “Now our target is to boost the share of such customers by at least 10 per cent,” he adds.

By attracting passengers to its website, fast growing airline increases its opportunities to offer them ancillary services. According to Kalmykov, those customers who purchase tickets on its website also spend on ancillary services such as baggage, choice of seat, insurance etc – on average triple the amount spent by indirect buyers.

Vitaly Saveliev, the head of Aeroflot Group, has previously indicated that to offset rising fuel costs, Aeroflot needs to triple its existing share of ancillary revenues, bringing its contribution to 20 per cent. This is a forced measure, he explained, as the airline cannot raise fares because of the low purchasing power of its clientele.

In the meantime, Pobeda continues to demonstrate the highest traffic growth rate among Russia’s top-five airlines. In June it carried 905,000 passengers, up by an impressive 43.2 per cent on the same month of last year.