Alternative Airlines 2022 Financial Results

Bookings more than triple in 2022 compared to pre-pandemic 2019 as Alternative Airlines celebrates its best ever financial year

02/11/22 – Thriving online flight search and booking platform Alternative Airlines has announced its 2022 financial results. The company has seen revenue skyrocket post-pandemic, generating £67.9m in 2022. Not only is this Alternative Airlines’ best ever financial year, it also represents a +622% increase in just 2 years from £9.4m in 2020, and £28m in 2021.

Alternative Airlines’ striking increase in revenue is thanks to a marked increase in booking volume, which grew by +200% in 2022 compared to pre-pandemic 2019.

This was driven by the site’s phenomenal growth globally, in countries including the United States (+360%), Canada (+113%), Australia (+315%), the United Arab Emirates (+873%), and Egypt (+150) in 2022 compared to 2019. 

Alternative Airlines’ success can be accredited to its relentless focus on enhancing the end-to-end booking experience for customers. This includes the launch of innovative new flight content and more ancillary products, which has significantly increased the average order value.

Guided by its mission to offer customers a fully tailored and customisable flight booking platform – with support from the site’s expert Customer Service team – Alternative Airlines has also continued to drive its international expansion by building its portfolio of payment options, including ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’, in markets around the world. 

Alternative Airlines’ Managing Director, Sam Argyle, stated: “I’m thrilled to announce that in 2022 we achieved our best ever financial year. Our dedication to serving our global customer base, no matter where in the world they’re booking or where they’re flying to, has underpinned our focus as we prepared for the boom in travel post-pandemic. The explosive growth that we’ve experienced in 2022 is testament to the success of this.” 

As a travel technology innovator, Alternative Airlines has undertaken a number of projects over the past year to further optimise and personalise the flight booking experience for customers, from pre to post-booking.

Through 2022 Alternative Airlines has continued to maximise the flight content and airline choice available to customers through innovative projects and partnerships with travel technology providers such as Amadeus. This includes joining Amadeus NDC (X), which marked a significant milestone in Alternative Airlines’ New Distribution Capability (NDC) journey. NDC enables direct access to an airline’s content – including flexible fare options, ancillary products and more – and therefore enhances the personalisation and customer experience that Alternative Airlines is able to offer.

Alternative Airlines has also enhanced the airline content that it sources through Virtual Interlining (VI), including the addition of new carriers. VI enables Alternative Airlines to offer an even greater choice of flight connections and transfers across multiple carriers on a single itinerary, even when these airlines do not share an existing codeshare agreement. 

The site relaunched ‘Manage My Booking’, which customers can sign in to post-booking to view their itinerary, download e-tickets and more, with the addition of a number of self-service functions. This included the addition of self-service cancellation, which enables flights to be easily cancelled online without the need to contact the site’s Customer Service team. With these additions, Alternative Airlines is providing greater convenience and the immediacy that customers are after.

With a wide choice of 600+ global carriers and bookings from more than 160 countries each year, Alternative Airlines has always been a global business. So as international travel began to resume following the pandemic, the site seized this opportunity by launching a number of new Buy Now, Pay Later payment options in markets around the world, including within the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia.

The site has also expanded its longstanding partnerships with existing payment providers to offer even more payment terms in key markets including the US, Canada and Australia. This empowers customers to choose the payment terms that are the best fit for them, no matter their basket value. 

Sam continued: “Since the pandemic, we’ve seen increased demand for more flexible payment options worldwide, along with customers wanting alternatives to traditional high-interest bearing credit. To serve this demand, we saw a massive opportunity to increase our portfolio of buy now, pay later and financing options globally – which fits perfectly with our mission to offer a tailored and customisable booking experience. We’re proud to increasingly become the platform of choice for travellers looking for flexible payment options for flights globally."

With customers supported at each stage by Alternative Airlines’ expert Customer Service team, this has all contributed to the site’s fantastic current rating of 4.5 stars from more than 10,000 reviews on independent review site Trustpilot. 

In recognition of the company’s success, in July 2022 Alternative Airlines announced it had launched a new Employee Benefits scheme, which includes generous flight credit up to £1000. As well as acknowledging the hard work of its existing team, Alternative Airlines also hopes to appeal to prospective employees. The company has already doubled its in-house team of 39 employees in 2021 to 79 in 2022, and has plans to double again in 2023 to help drive the next stage of its growth.  

Alternative has many more projects in the pipeline to enhance the booking experience even further as the company continues toward its target of 100m by 2023. This includes the launch of a new loyalty scheme to reward returning customers, as well as a new post-booking app, to make it even easier for customers to manage, amend and add extras to their flight bookings. And in response to an increasing demand from customers to make greener choices, the site will also soon display ‘green flight’ filters in its search results, to empower customers to compare CO2 emissions and make more informed decisions about their air travel.