Virgin Atlantic targets online growth
Web site upgrade to improve online booking process
Virgin Atlantic has enhanced its web site, installing an upgraded booking engine, as it seeks to meet aggressive annual growth targets of 15 per cent for web site bookings.
The airline implemented its new booking engine Enhanced Fare Search (EFS) on all regions of its web site to make it easier for customers to find and book flights.
Ecommerce project manager Lisa Rogers says although the web site underwent a refresh in 2004, the booking process remained unchanged.
‘Our main focus was to provide a service that would allow online customers a choice on how to search and price travel plans,’ she said.
‘We also recognised that the speed of these searches was of paramount importance to our passengers and have concentrated our efforts on this side of the delivery as much as we have on the functional enhancements.’
Rogers says Virgin Atlantic wants to achieve 15 per cent growth year-on-year from its web site and over the next 12 months will make a number of other enhancements to improve customer service.
‘Virgin Atlantic is constantly looking at ways to improve customer experience online and we invested a significant amount of time analysing, designing and implementing the booking engine to ensure the web site is as user friendly as possible,’ she added.
Interactive media consultancy Conchango provided the booking engine technology, offering more options in searching for flights and fares, the ability to browse for the lowest fare three days either side of chosen travel dates and ability to search and view availability for redemption seats for a month.
The changes are part of Virgin’s eCom strategy to increase the overall share of internet bookings and overall profitability of fares bought on the internet.
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