A share of young male LCC users exceeds 50% in Japan - JTM survey

The LCC user awareness and behavior survey 2015, conduced by Japan Tourism Marketing (JTM), the Japan’s leading tourism think tank, finds that a share of LCC users on domestic routes was 22.5%, 6.7 higher points than 2014 or more than 10 higher points than 2013.

The largest share was found in 18 to 29 years old male users with a share of 52.2%, followed by 30 to 29 years old male users with 36.9% and 18 to 29 years old female users with 36.1%. Region-wise, the user rate was 33.6% in Kansai, which almost doubled 17.8% in Kanto.

The most popular Japanese LCC was Jetstar Japan with the user rate of 9.7%, followed by Peach Aviation (8.1%) and Vanilla Air (2.2%) and Spring Airlines Japan (1.0%).

The following table shows LCC user rates by age and sex segment:

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As far as purchase behavior for domestic LCC tickets is concerned, purchase of only air ticket was 85.9%, overwhelmingly surpassing 11.5% for purchase of package tour including accommodation. The trend in international LCC booking is different from that in domestic LCC booking, as purchase of international LCC ticket only was 67.5%, 18.4 lower points than purchase of domestic LCC ticket only. In reverse, purchase of international package tour reached 20.5%, 9 higher points than purchase of domestic package tour.

The following tables show purchase behaviors on domestic and international LCC flights by age:

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Regarding domestic air ticket price (including optional services, such as seat assignment or additional baggage), the ratio of l 5,000 JPN to 9,999 JPN was 43.5%, and including 10.7% for less than 5,000 JPN, the majority was less than 10,000 JPN.

The survey also indicates the reality that LCC services have consumers’ travel behaviors, showing major voices like ‘I choose LCC when I travel to the same destination as before (32.8%)’ ‘LCC gives me a opportunity to travel in Japan (32.7%)’ or ‘LCC enables me to increase travel frequency (27.8%).’

The following table shows changes domestic LCC brings in travel by region:

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The survey also finds that there is a different trend in intention to use a LCC service between LCC experience and LCC beginner. The ratios of intension to use a LCC service only were 10.4% among LCC experiences and 1.1% among LCC beginners. The ratios of intension to use a full service carrier only were 4.0% among LCC experiences and 34.4% among LCC beginners. The result shows that LCC experiences tend to prefer to LCC services.

In Japanese

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