According to Sabre, who operate booking systems for the travel industry, airlines now consider customer loyalty and retention as the most important issue at the moment. You might be forgiven for thinking it was fuel or staffing but no. From 90 airlines across the world Sabre says the customer is king at the moment.

So if we are so important how is it that the airlines are trying to relieve us of every penny they possibly can?

Airlines now consider ancillary revenue, the money they make from selling us merchandise, insurance, hotels or car hire as a vital revenue source. The problem is that with fewer passengers that means fewer ways for them to bolster revenue. So I come back to the question. Why aren’t they nicer to us? Why don’t they dream up loyalty or retention schemes that are different rather than being so similar? Ryanair, who couldn’t care a jot about passenger satisfaction, rely on price and it works. To compete with them, other airlines have to offer the other thing that Ryanair doesn’t;- service and a feeling that they appreciate our business. It isn’t rocket science but to many of them still don’t see it. A new startup, Nimbus Airlines  which plans to become Scotland’s national carrier, wants to follow the ethos of the late lamented British Caledonian and put the passenger as the focus. Maybe that’s one potential airline that does see it.