Leading budget and charter airline websites including Ryanair and Monarch are bottom of the pile when it comes to ease of use, according to a new study. Webcredible’s annual Flights Online Report scores Ryanair and Monarch amongst the worst and believes they could be pushing consumers away as well as putting people off online check-in.…
Ryanair and Monarch slammed in online user report
Leading budget and charter airline websites including Ryanair and Monarch are bottom of the pile when it comes to ease of use, according to a new study.
Webcredible’s annual Flights Online Report scores Ryanair and Monarch amongst the worst and believes they could be pushing consumers away as well as putting people off online check-in.
The 2009 study of 20 leading carrier and travel agent websites puts Ryanair in the bottom slot with a score of just 41 per cent while Monarch, up two places from last year and scoring 47%, comes joint 18th with Thomas Cook.
Both easyJet and Jet2 also scored 50% or lower in the study.
Meanwhile, British Airways, Expedia and Virgin Atlantic emerged top in the study offering the best levels of usability in online travel with BA taking the top slot with 71% while Expedia and Virgin share second place with 70%.
Expedia and Virgin Atlantic were also the biggest movers improving their scores by 17 per cent and 15 per cent respectively from last year’s study.
Most players improved on last year’s score with the average usability score climbing more than five percentage points to 56.7% from last year’s average of 51.5%.
Webcredible believes there is still a way to go with simple elements such as clear progress bars, identification of errors and airport information highlighted as key areas for improvement for the online travel sector.
Trenton Moss of Webcredible said: “Despite improving since last year, many travel companies are still not doing enough to ensure their websites are easy to use.
“The online travel market is highly competitive with many companies offering the same flights and packages at similar prices, and if customers find one site difficult to use, they will often seek out a competitor.”
