Both Airlines and Travel Agencies Can Survive Through Affiliate Marketing Despite the Present Losses in the Airlines Industry

Bankruptcies are nothing new in the airline industry. American Airlines, United Airlines, and Delta Airlines all declared bankruptcy at one point but were able to recover by merging with other airlines. Many people are perplexed as to why the airline industry is synonymous with ongoing losses and insolvency, given the vital nature of the service it provides and its invaluable contribution to making the world a smaller place.

If you are one of the few who still believe these airlines are highly profitable, let us take a quick look at the four-year financial reports of the three American airlines listed in the first paragraph.

American Airlines Group Inc. 

Financial Summary of American Airlines Group Inc. (AAL) [Adapted from Yahoo Finance]

As seen from the screenshot above, American Airlines Group Inc. AAL made the following: 

What Was Wrong? 

If a company can generate pre-Covid-19 pandemic revenue of $44.54 billion and $45.77 billion in 2018 and 2019, but only earn $1.41 billion and $1.69 billion in the same years, there must be a significant cost of revenue and other expenses involved in running such a business. It's no surprise that it ended up with negative post-Covid-19 pandemic earnings of $(-8.88) billion in 2020 and $(-1.99) billion in 2021.

United Airlines Holdings, Inc.

Financial Summary of United Airlines Holdings, Inc. (UAL) [Adapted from Yahoo Finance]

Delta Air Lines, Inc.

Financial Summary of Delta Air Lines, Inc. (DAL) [Adapted from Yahoo Finance]

Way Forward For the Airlines Industry

It is obvious that these three airlines, which are all based in the United States and compete in the same regional market, share the same issues. Despite the fact that they all have large revenues, their operational expenses are also so large that their earnings are low. To get out of this situation, there are two options:

1. To Cut Expenses: This should be a long-term goal for all airlines. Because the cost of airplane fuel is rising daily, airlines are looking into alternative methods of powering their engines. For example, an A380 superjumbo recently completed a flight powered by cooking oil. While this appears to be the wisest option, we believe it is still too early to rely on technology to reduce the operational costs of running an airline business.
2. To Increase Revenues: As seen in the three screenshots above, all three airlines increased their revenues in order to increase their earnings, which had fallen into negative territory. For all airlines, this appears to be the simplest and most appropriate immediate solution.

Affiliate Marketing, a Strategy to Increase Airlines Revenues

The affiliate channel is uniquely positioned to assist travel brands in driving online growth. Many travel companies use affiliate marketing to reach new customers, meet company KPIs, and support customer retention. Airlines can easily increase their revenues with this approach, and travel brands can join these programs to earn commissions from the affiliate programs they join. We are discussing the top affiliate marketing strategies that travel companies and agencies can use to accelerate growth. 

Affiliate Program You Can Promote

Here are five high-ticket programs we'd like to introduce you to.
 

1. Villiers

If you refer private jet charter clients to Villiers, you will earn thousands in commission for each private jet flight booked. The Villiers network connects over 10 000 private aircraft to 40 000 destinations worldwide, allowing clients to find the best private jet charter prices in one place.

There is also a lifetime commission on any private jet charter client you introduce. Their 30 percent profit share is unrivaled in the industry, allowing you to truly scale your marketing efforts.

• Commission Rate: 30 percent profit share, $1 000 for every flight booked. Recurring commission along with recurring revenue for any future bookings a referred client goes on to make
• Cookie Duration: 364 days

2. Dollar Flight Club​​​​​​​

Dollar Flight Club is a travel subscription service that alerts its 1 000 000 plus members to the world's cheapest flight deals departing from their home airports. Their mission is to help their members all over the world see more of the world and realize their travel dreams on a budget.

Dollar Fight Club makes use of big data to help members save 60%-90% on their next flight. Members only need to choose their departure airport, keep an eye out for email and app alerts, and book their dream vacation. They put in all the effort so that their members can spend less and travel more. Their members save an average of $500 per ticket booked. 

• Commission: $35 for every new customer you refer to their DFC program, and they reward affiliates with a competitive payout rate of 50 percent for any Premium Member signups. 
• Cookie Duration: 90 days

3. ​​​​​​​SkyScanner

SkyScanner shows their customers all of the flight, hotel, and car rental options available to them from their global partners, allowing them to compare all of the options and choose what is best for them. It began in 2003 as a simple tool for comparing flight prices. They are now a global company with 100 million travelers relying on them to be the world's travel search site.

• Commission: Affiliates earn a revenue share of 20 percent from all traffic sent to Skyscanner through affiliate links.
• Cookie Duration: 30 days.

4. Kayak

Every year, they process billions of queries for travel information across their platforms, assisting millions of travelers around the world in making confident decisions. KAYAK searches hundreds of travel sites with each query to provide travelers with the information they need to find the best flights, hotels, rental cars, and vacation packages. Booking Holdings, one of the world's leaders in online travel, acquired them in 2013.

• Commission: Affiliates earn 50 percent commission on clicks, bookings, and ad revenue across each vertical including flights, hotels, cars, and holiday packages.
• Cookie Duration: 30 days. 

5. ​​​​​​​12go

12go positions itself as a multimodal travel company that compares and sells interline tickets for all modes of transportation. They connect directly to supplier systems via API to provide good results. They provide high-quality, safe, secure, and efficient transportation services to multinational customers. With its technology, the company provides B2B and B2C online ticketing.

The ultimate goal of 12go is to connect the world door-to-door, from transfers to flights, with a single standard ticket. As a result, their team manages operators from all over the world and connects them with customers from all over the world.

• Commission: Affiliates get up to 50 percent of sales,  depending on the operator, travel dates, departure time, currencies, and transaction amount. 
• Cookie Duration: 30 days. 

​​​​​​​Estimated Revenue for Airline Affiliate Marketing

If you want to use free traffic to promote your affiliate offers, you should start a travel blog or create social media accounts with travel-related content. If you do not have the time to create a social media account, you can create a simple blog, write some articles, and use paid ads to drive traffic to the website.
For this estimation, we are using our analysis and result on hacking Google ads.

• Daily Google Search Ads Budget: $100
•  Estimated Daily Visitors: 1 000  
• Estimated Daily Number of Sales: 30 (3 percent conversion rate) 
• The reward for each converted visitor: $35 
• Estimated Daily Revenue: $1, 050 
• Estimated Monthly Revenue: $31 500 
• Monthly Google Search Ads Budget: $3 000 
• Estimated Monthly Income: $28 500 

​​​​​​​Note

This is only revenue for the club's average of 30 new members per day. There is still a 50 percent recurring commission for all converted visitors.

This analysis is based on the assumption that you can convert 3 percent of the 1 000 visitors who visit your affiliate page every day. As a result, we recommend that you thoroughly read our article on hacking Google ads. 

Conclusion

The airline industry is not highly profitable, and airlines have begun to use affiliate programs to increase revenue in order to avoid bankruptcy. So, travel agents and individuals can take advantage of this opportunity to earn approximately $28 500 per month by participating in high commission programs. It is very necessary to set up properly and use a good strategy to drive traffic to affiliate links before one starts seeing the results. We believe you can easily achieve and even exceed this goal if you follow our advice on hacking Google ads.