Qantas Market Segmentation

The airline industry has long attempted to segment the air travel market in order to effectively target its constituents. The classic airline model consists of First Class, Business Class and Economy, and the demographics that make up the classes have both similarities and differences to the other classes. For instance there may be similarities between business class travellers on a particular flight, but they will not all be travelling for the same reason. An almost-universal characteristic of air travel is that customers do not fly for the sake of flying; the destination is the important element and the travel is a by-product, a means-to-an-end that involves the necessity of an aircraft that gets the customer from point A to point B. Because the reasons can differ greatly in the motivations for a customer wanting to fly, it can be difficult to divide the market into discrete segments, that is, there is always going to be overlap in the preferences and characteristics of any given segment. With that in mind, the commonalities that are shared between the clientele that make up the respective classes can easily withstand analysis.

Geographic
As the nature of air travel is largely logistical, it is hard to talk about the industry without addressing geography. Airlines don't just have to market to customers in terms of geographics, the airline industry is geographic; getting a customer from where they are to where they want to be.
Internationally speaking, Australia is a slight disadvantage because of its location compared to other developed nations. The majority of global travellers do not typically pass through Australia on-route to another destination; Australia is the end of the line. Cities such as Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and...

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...ly First is due to their usage rate, user status and loyalty; many will continue to fly even if they consider First or Business Class poor value. An economy passenger may be behaviourally grouped by occasion; the peak time for travel is usually around the holidays so customers are busy visiting the friends or family. Qantas has marketed to travellers in the past around the holidays (Christmas and New Year) to encourage readiness among potential travellers.

Works Cited

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Maignan, I. (2001). "Consumers' perceptions of corporate social responsibilities: a cross-cultural comparison." Journal of Business Ethics 30(1): 57-72.

Mason, K. J. (2001). "Marketing low-cost airline services to business travellers." Journal of Air Transport Management 7(2): 103-109.