Northwest Doubles Web-Based Ticket Sales in 2004

Northwest Airlines Inc. is enjoying a breakthrough year in electronic ticket sales. The St. Paul, Minn.-based air carrier, the fifth largest in the world, is booking between $4 million and $6 million a day in ticket sales through its Web site, twice the volume the airline's site accounted for a year ago. Speaking as part of a panel yesterday at Keynote Systems Inc.'s Global Internet Performance conference in New York, Jackie Astleford, director of e-commerce for Northwest, said ticket sales on the site this year began to exceed combined sales through the company's eight call centers. She told Digital Transactions News that the increase in e-commerce volume has resulted from big jumps in traffic, both to Northwest's site and to travel sites generally. “People are more comfortable shopping for air travel on the Web,” she says, pointing out that many customers come to Northwest's site to book tickets after shopping their flights on sites like Orbitz or Travelocity. She says a $5 fee the carrier has begun charging for bookings made through its call centers is also helping to channel traffic to its site. Astleford is responsible for both online sales as well as transactions through the carrier's network of airport ticketing kiosks, which now number 967 worldwide, she says. The kiosks print tickets reserved online and also handle seat upgrades and meal and headset sales. Last year, the airline took in almost $8 billion in total passenger-related revenue.