The only point of being a niche player is to make money, conference delegates were told.
In a speech on niche marketing, London City Airport managing director Richard Gooding said niche players needed to have lower marketing costs and more affluent passengers than bigger operators.
But one one of the hazards of being successful was that if you became a threat to a big company, they either bought you or joined you. An advantage of being a niche operator was the ability to get to know your customers and cater to their needs. Gooding said London City Airport had more high yield passengers, so it could charge more for its services. He said over 40% of London City’s were business or first class passengers, compared with 14.6% at Gatwick and 1.2% at Luton.
“If an airline is picking up a good fare, it can pay us a fair price,” said Gooding.