CNN
Pay-per-use in vogue on the road
Nick Easen
CNN
(CNN) -- User-pays is a growing global trend in the biz travel arena, whether you want to send a fax, drink in an airport lounge or order in-flight food.
While corporations cut travel budgets and the value-based airline sector booms, cost-conscious executives are finding it easier to budget when they only pay for what they use.
Pay-per-use lounges, a relatively new concept, have been attracting a lot of attention especially in Brisbane and Sydney, Australia.
Here a casual fee of $3 allows you to relax, surf the Net, watch a free movie or play on a Sony Playstation -- apparently all the rage among grown men with executive stress.
"These lounges are proving to be a popular option with business guests," Amanda Bolger from Virgin Blue told CNN.
"If you don't want to use it, it doesn't have an impact on the price of your air fare," she adds.
Traditionally airlines have bundled lounge and in-flight services for business and first class travelers in a bid to attract premium prices for tickets and attract the high-end traveler.
Yet with travel budgets under increasing scrutiny, executives are appreciating the greater transparency, were costs are unraveled and they can choose which services to use.
"Business travelers have no problem paying for a service, but they now like to have that option," adds Bolger.
Virgin Blue's pay-per-use lounges have been so popular that they plan to roll out another in Melbourne and at other airports across Australia.
Their formula for success is likely to be mirrored by Qantas, who plans to introduce a competing domestic airline along the same lines as Virgin Blue.
Delta Air Lines introduced its no-frills Song service this April in the US. Free soft drinks and water are available in-flight, but passengers pay for food -- as they do on EasyJet in Europe.
User-pay conveniences such as lounges, business services, and in-flight food are a sound investment for no-frills airlines, as people only use what they need.
If there is increasing or decreasing demand then it is easier to alter the services on offer.
Whereas the major global airlines have made huge investment on premium lounges, staffing and services that are maintained whether business is boom or bust.
According to the website
http://www.lowcostairlines.org/ there are 34 no-frills airlines in Europe, 13 in the United States and five in the Asia-Pacific region, and the list is on the rise.
Experts say these are the airlines that are likely to spearhead pay-per-use travel services in the future.
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http://www.lowcostairlines.org/ Which I have just had a quick
look at, seems to have a lot of inside information on how these No-frills-LCCs work.
Wirraway