Promote Reopened Routes
EveryMundo Restart & Reacquire Best Practices
As airlines prepare for the Restart Phase and begin to reopen routes, promoting and selling seats for reopened routes at the necessary load factor is critical. So critical, that we dedicated an entire Restart & Re-Acquire Playbook to it (Sell Reopened Routes).
After sharing the Sell Reopened Routes Playbook with our airline partners, we have gathered the best practices for implementing the Playbook’s tactics in real life. Airlines executing these restart tactics include Air Canada, Japan Airlines, Spirit, and American Airlines.
1. Air Canada: “Ready for Takeoff” campaign
Air Canada is promoting their reopened routes with the launch of their “Ready for Takeoff” campaign, which features all of their reopened routes organized by regional airTRFX Custom Pages. Custom pages are easy to create using airTRFX Control, and can be customized with Fare airModules that display real-time fares for any number of selected routes.
Air Canada Home Page
On the Air Canada home page, they have a series of hero banner images that link to airTRFX Custom Pages with real-time low fares for each destination within the region.
Below the home page hero banner, there is a series of tiles promoting other reopened routes and destinations, all linking to airTRFX Custom Pages.
Air Canada created regional airTRFX Custom Pages, like the one below titled “Take off to the U.S.” that is linked from their home page hero banner. On these regional Custom Pages Air Canada has added tiles that link to airTRFX To-City Pages to direct users to the best real-time fares for destinations they are looking for.
This tactic showcases all of their available destinations in their route network by region, making it easy for travelers to find the destination and fare they are looking for.
2. Japan Airlines: Communicating Reopened Routes and New Frequencies
Japan Airlines (JAL) has leveraged Custom Pages to promote routes to destinations in their network reopening. To the right is one of their Custom Pages designed to inform travelers of the resumption of routes in July 2020, including lowest fares.
These route reopening Custom Pages are divided by region, like Asia Pacific, and include all the lowest real-time fares available. The Custom Pages also include key information like safety, hygeine, and regulations to put traveler minds at ease as they prepare to resume air travel.
JAL promoted their route reopening Custom Pages across their social media platforms, including the examples below from Facebook and LinkedIn. These social media ads linked directly to the Custom Pages and were customized by region.
Additionally, JAL send the route reopening Custom Pages out in their email newsletter to share with loyal customers what routes were reopened, and the lowest fares available.
Facebook ad linking to airTRFX Custom Page
LinkedIn ad linking to airTRFX Custom Page
Email with button to airTRFX Custom Page
3. Spirit: Informing Users of Operating Routes from their Location
For their Restart strategy, Spirit Airlines used airTRFX Template Pages to personalize messages to travelers based on their nearest airport. airTRFX Template Pages come in several categories, including From-City Pages (ex. a Flights from Los Angeles page) and City-to-City Pages (ex. a Los Angeles to Miami Page).
Using these pages, Spirit is able to target customers with their Geo-IP address and send them the most relevant To-City and City-to-City pages based on their location and nearest airport. By leveraging From-City and City-to-City pages, Spirit is able to inform users about operating routes from their nearest airport.
Spirit sent out the email to the right to customers and highlighted their nearest airport. From there, users could either 1) search all flights from their nearest airport, or 2) select a destination right from the email to see only the best fares for that particular route.
Option 1 navigated the user to the From-City page (in this example From Fort Lauderdale) where the lowest real-time fares to popular destinations are displayed.
Option 2 took the user to the City-to-City page for their nearest airport to the destination they selected (ex. Fort Lauderdale to Austin).
4. American Airlines: “Where We Fly” Custom Page
American Airlines is leveraging airTRFX Custom Pages to Promote their reopened routes in their “Sumer of Deals” promotion. They created a “Where We Fly” airTRFX Custom Page that features all available destinations in an expandable Google Map placed on the Custom Page via iFrame. Below the map is a Custom Accordion which organizes reopened routes by region. Users can click any region and see a drop down of available destinations, all liknked to To-City airTRFX Template Pages.
American Airlines is driving traffic to their “Where We Fly” Custom Page using their email newsletters. In their Summer of Deals email promotion the first CTA button links directly to the airTRFX Custom Page.
5. Kenya Airways: Route Status airModule
The Route Status airModule can be placed on any airTRFX page to update travelers on route availability. Due to COVID-19, some routes may be suspended or have reduced service. Airlines can use the Route Status airModule to provide route status updates to all web visitors and allow direct bookings for all available routes.
Kenya Airways is the first airline to implement the Route Status airModule to keep their passengers informed about their network availability and timelines.
The Route Status airModule is created on airTRFX Control using a simple spreadsheet with each route listed as:
- A for Active
- S for Suspended
- R for Reactivating soon
Airlines can include dates when the route will be available and update route status with a simple update to the spreadsheet.
Watch how to create a Route Status airModule in this video tutorial and step-by-step guide >
EveryMundo Restart & Reacquire Playbooks
Understand Demand
Understand search demand for all routes to determine which routes are best to reopen, and when.
In this Playbook:
Utilize User Search Data
Forecast market demand from SEM
Promote Deals & Offers
Compete to acquire and reacquire customers with real-time, targeted fare promotions.
In this Playbook:
Run Cross-Channel Campaigns
Promote Future Travel Today
Sell Reopened Routes
Determine strategic routes to reopen, then acquire passengers with scalable marketing strategies.
In this Playbook:
Optimize SEM for Strategic Routes
Communicate Route Availability
Inform your Customers
Best practices to inform customers on and off your website.
In this Playbook:
Effectively communicate policies, restrictions and key info on and off your website at scale.
Reacquire Loyal Customers
Acquire new customers and reacquire loyal customers by advertising loyalty benefits.
In this Playbook:
Promote loyalty benefits
Display real-time miles fares
Focus SEO Efforts
Drive qualified traffic to your website with airline-specific SEO strategies.
In this Playbook:
Optimize organic search position
Maintain high SEO performance
Ready to Restart & Re-Acquire Customers?
We’ll show you how.