Heathrow Express has seen a 9% increase in passenger journey’s on the non-stop airport service so far this year as it seeks to increase its price promotions through the trade and direct.
The service, which celebrated hitting the 100 million customer milestone at the end of June, says it has seen a shift so that leisure customers, traditionally 40% of its total, now equal corporate travellers.
Richard Young, sales and distribution manager, said a £5.50 advanced booking fares, incentivised off peak travel and under-16s go free offers are challenging the perception that the service is expensive.
“It all comes down to the customer experience we want to be able to offer someone flying into or out of Heathrow. We are the express service, moving people seamlessly from Heathrow to London and vice versa,” said Young.
Asked why passenger numbers are up, he added: “I think the airport is busier, but we are actively looking at some of our price promotions and what we are doing to make Heathrow Express more attractive to the travelling public.”
Heathrow Express transports 16,000 people a day between Paddington station and the UK’s hub airport with non-stop departures leaving every 15 minutes and taking 15 minutes.
A special photographic exhibition in the main concourse at Paddington Station marked the service carrying the 100 millionth passenger since it first started operating in 1998.
“If you look at how Heathrow Express has developed in the 19 years of its existence it has had very strong growth from its inception. We have passed different milestones where we have seen really good spikes,” Young said.
He added the service is actively looking to open as many distribution channels as it can including through the trade via the two leading UK GDSs Travelport and Amadeus.
A Smartpoint app has been created with Travelport and its service is being integrated with Amadeus as a transfer option ahead of a pilot with a leading online and high street corporate and leisure customer of the GDS.
Young said Heathrow Express was working mostly with Travel Management Companies at the moment, but it was also keen to partner with leisure agents to embed bookings into their systems.
“Travellers who are coming in to Heathrow want to have a really good seamless experience when arriving and not just be abandoned by their travel agent,” he said.
“The agent can add that value by offering them a solution that will get them away from the airport and up to central London quickly and efficiently.”
Heathrow Express believes it is taking ‘mode share’ of business from other travel options from Heathrow, particularly black cabs and the London Underground.
In January the latest National Rail Passenger Survey found the biggest improvement had come in value for money perception, which improved by 11 percentage points to 53%, ahead of the southeast average of 43%.
Heathrow Express scored 96% for overall customer satisfaction, well above the national average of 81% and the London and southeast average of 80%.