Industry overview
What is shaping aerospace
Aerospace brings together airlines, airports, MRO providers and component suppliers, with safety, reliability and certification at the centre of every decision.
- Passenger experience is a key differentiator for airlines and airports
- MRO and component buying depends on certification and turnaround
- Skilled talent is in short supply
Client background
A South-East Asian airline loyalty programme, working in Malaysia, Indonesia & Hong Kong. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.
- Organisation
- A South-East Asian airline loyalty programme
- Sector
- Aerospace
- Team engaged
- Market Research
- Services
- Quantitative research, Consumer panel, Research consultancy
Client challenge
The airline planned to restructure its loyalty tiers and rewards but feared alienating its most valuable members.
Research objectives
- Deliver on the brief: testing changes to a frequent flyer programme.
- Understand the views, needs and behaviour of frequent.
- Produce results that can be compared across groups and locations.
- Give the client evidence it can act on within 6 weeks.
Target audience
The work focused on 2,000 frequent.
- frequent2,000
Audiences we typically reach in aerospace
PassengersAirline and airport managersMRO providersComponent suppliersEngineers and technicians
Geographic coverage
Coverage: Malaysia, Indonesia & Hong Kong. Markets: Malaysia, Indonesia and Hong Kong.
- Malaysia
- Indonesia
- Hong Kong
Research methodology
A structured quantitative design, so results could be compared across groups, locations and time.
- 1Brief
- 2Online survey with choice exercise
- 3Insight
Members and non-members completed a survey including a choice exercise comparing alternative tier structures, earning rates and benefits. Results were analysed by travel frequency and purpose.
Quantitative researchConsumer panelResearch consultancy
Sampling strategy
- frequent
- 2,000
- Online respondents were drawn from verified panel members who matched the screening criteria, with quotas on key profile attributes.
Data collection
- The online survey was mobile-friendly and offered in respondents' languages.
Data quality & validation
- Digital fingerprinting and duplicate checks
- Attention, speed and straight-lining checks
- Review of open-ended answers
- Logic and range checks on the final data
- Work carried out under our ISO 20252 quality procedures
Data analysis
- Cross-tabulation by key groups and locations
- Significance testing on the differences that mattered
- Price and trade-off analysis
Key findings
- Business travellers valued priority services and flexible upgrades far more than bonus points.
Choice exercises showed trade-offs that direct questions would have missed.
Recommendations
- Build on the core insight: choice exercises showed trade-offs that direct questions would have missed.
- Focus effort where the evidence was strongest: business travellers valued priority services and flexible upgrades far more than bonus points.
- Re-measure after the changes to confirm the effect.
Business impact
- The airline adjusted its proposal to protect those benefits for top tiers while simplifying lower tiers.
What changed in the business as a result of the work. Impact is described qualitatively.
Deliverables & next steps
- Insight report and management presentation
- Cleaned data file and data tables
- Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
- A natural follow-on question: where are supplier gaps?
Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.