Roy Morgan Research
January 29, 2020

Qantas remains number one in airline satisfaction for both domestic and domestic business travel

Topic: Customer Satisfaction, Press Release, Special Poll
Finding No: 8243
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New Roy Morgan airline satisfaction data shows national flag-carrier Qantas is the winner of both the Domestic Airline and Domestic Business Airline of the Month Award for November 2019. Qantas has won eight straight monthly awards in the domestic category, and remains unbeaten in the domestic business category for 2019.

In the Domestic Airline category, Qantas’s leading customer satisfaction rating of 84% was followed by Virgin Australia (80%), QantasLink (76%), REX (69%), Jetstar (57%) and Tigerair (49%). In the Domestic Business Airline category, Qantas again claimed the highest rating of 83%, followed by Virgin Australia (72%) and Jetstar (56%).

These findings have been obtained from the Roy Morgan Single Source survey, derived from in-depth face-to-face interviews with over 50,000 Australians each year in their homes.

Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine says that due to Qantas’s strong performance throughout the year, other carriers will now turn their attention to new ways of dislodging Qantas from the top spot in 2020.

“Qantas has dominated the Domestic Airline category for many years, having won the past five annual customer satisfaction awards. Other airlines, particularly its main competitor Virgin Australia, will need to look at new ways of improving satisfaction ratings in order to disrupt the status quo. Virgin Australia outperformed Qantas in 2012 and 2013, but in recent years it has struggled to lift its rating into the mid-80s, leaving it unable to beat its consistently higher rival.

“In the Domestic Business Airline award, Qantas has had a stranglehold on this category for a long period and recent data suggests that isn’t changing any time soon. When we compare Qantas’s current rating of 83% with twelve months ago, we see an improvement of 4%. In contrast, Virgin Australia’s rating is 72%, a drop of 4% over the same period,” Ms. Levine says. 

As we approach the 2019 Roy Morgan Annual Satisfaction Awards, which look back at the best performers over the entire year in dozens of categories, Customer Satisfaction is only the tip of the iceberg. Roy Morgan tracks customer satisfaction, engagement, loyalty, advocacy and NPS across a wide range of industries and brands. This data can be analysed by month by brand and importantly by competitive set.

A detailed analysis of Australia’s leading airlines is available as part of the Report on Australians' Airline Satisfaction.

Leading domestic airline and domestic business airline customer satisfaction

Source: Roy Morgan Single Source Australia, (Domestic Airline) June 2019 – November 2019, n = 2,632. (Domestic Business Airline) June 2019 – November 2019, n= 544. Base: (Domestic Airline) Australians aged 14+ who have used domestic airline in past twelve months, (Domestic Business Airline) Australians aged 14+ who have used domestic airline for business travel in past twelve months.

Key differences between Qantas, Virgin Australia and Jetstar customers

Women comprise the majority of airline passengers for all three main airlines although the different airlines appeal to distinct age groups. Qantas customers are most likely to be aged 50-65, Virgin Australia customers aged 35-49 and the typical Jetstar customer likely to be aged 25-34.

Although customers of all three airlines are well-educated, we see Qantas has the highest proportion who have completed a diploma or degree (64%), followed by Virgin Australia (60%) and Jetstar (58%).

When we use Roy Morgan’s Helix Communities to delve into the behaviors and characteristics of the customers of each airline, we see that all, in varying degrees, tend to belong to Leading Lifestyles. These people are focused on success and career and family, and are proud of their prosperity and achievements. They are big spenders and enjoy cultured living to the max.

Further analyse each group of customers shows that both Qantas and Virgin Australia customers fit into the Domestic Bliss persona, comprised of highly educated and mostly Australian-born people, with a high proportion of home ownership amongst them. Helix Communities and Personas use deep psychographic insights, far beyond simple demographics, to segment consumers into targetable groups. The tool incorporates values, beliefs and attitudes which are the best predictors of consumer behaviour, enabling business to can reach customers most effectively with messages that resonate.

To learn more about Roy Morgan’s Helix Communities and Personas, visit the website.

Margin of Error

The margin of error to be allowed for in any estimate depends mainly on the number of interviews on which it is based. Margin of error gives indications of the likely range within which estimates would be 95% likely to fall, expressed as the number of percentage points above or below the actual estimate. Allowance for design effects (such as stratification and weighting) should be made as appropriate.

Sample Size Percentage Estimate
40% – 60% 25% or 75% 10% or 90% 5% or 95%
1,000 ±3.0 ±2.7 ±1.9 ±1.3
5,000 ±1.4 ±1.2 ±0.8 ±0.6
7,500 ±1.1 ±1.0 ±0.7 ±0.5
10,000 ±1.0 ±0.9 ±0.6 ±0.4
20,000 ±0.7 ±0.6 ±0.4 ±0.3
50,000 ±0.4 ±0.4 ±0.3 ±0.2

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