The Q2 2026 benchmarking report for airlines has just been published. Learn how the top 12 airlines perform across the digital space.
The latest Q2 2026 benchmarking report for airlines has just been published. It covers the largest 12 airlines, including Virgin Atlantic, EasyJet, British Airways, Delta Air Lines, Jet2.com and Jet2 Holidays, Ryanair, Aer Lingus, Air France, Wizz Air, United Airlines, Alaska Airlines, and American Airlines.
The research gives an inside track on who is winning the biggest share of voice online, and quantifies the gaps, risks and missed opportunities for other airlines to win brand exposure, drive online enquiries, and generate flight bookings. The report highlights year-on-year digital performance, plus winner and loser comparisons across 20+ online performance metrics and quantifies the gaps, risks and missed opportunities for airlines to win brand exposure, online growth and sales.
To see a preview and contents page of the Q2 report, click here. To get a copy of the full report and the key takeaways, please complete the enquiry form or schedule a call.
For a glance into just 6 of the metrics, we evaluated these top 12 airlines on, check out our quick-look table below;
To understand what the *CTM Digital Performance Index™ is click here.
Continue reading for further detail on this quarter's best and poorest-performing airlines or request a copy of the report for the full review.
The 70+ pages of research benchmarks each retailer based on 50+ metrics and indicators of successful digital strategy, including organic visibility, domain authority, paid media ads, conversion performance, technical performance, site speed, universal search, content, social ads, accessibility, and mobile performance.
Some of the leading players in the space are high spenders on paid media channels such as Google, Bing & Facebook - but have a poor or sub-optimal conversion improvement strategy. Without an optimised, sophisticated conversion strategy that maximises the conversion rate, the return on investment is unsustainable or will underperform. Scaling spend on paid media is not achievable unless the conversion rate delivers optimal performance in the sector. Some in the space have paid media spend levels from 30k+ per month but dedicate minimal resources and budgets to conversion testing. Given the cost per clicks on ad networks will continue to rise, we recommend spending at least 10% of your paid media budget on ongoing conversion optimisation testing schedules to ensure your paid media ROI maintains long-term viability, competitive advantage, and sustainability.
Pay-Per-Click marketing is constantly evolving, with more and more advertisers being forced to hand over a lot of control to Google's algorithms as the push for automation grows ever stronger. There are still key elements of control that we have though, the main one of these being budget which is ultimately something the algorithms can't take from you. That's why being smart with your budget and ad coverage is essential to achieving strong results and bettering what your competitors have to offer.
For Q2 2026, the average monthly budget wastage across these airlines was £255,493 with some of the top players in the market spending a considerable amount on areas and audiences unlikely to deliver a return. We can see this in more detail when looking at the average monthly cost per cost-per-click (CPC) amongst advertisers, with the average of this metric being £3. This highlights how competitive the market is and how important it is to control your budgets effectively.
There are varying monthly ad budgets across the competitors in the report. While this gap highlights the competitive advantage that larger budgets can provide, it's not just about spending more; it’s about spending smarter. By focusing on driving efficiency in campaign management, targeting, and budget allocation, businesses with smaller budgets can still effectively compete with larger players. Investing in data-driven strategies and refining ad performance can help close the gap and maximise the return on every pound spent, enabling growth even in a competitive landscape. Relative to their spend, Jet2.com and Jet2 Holidays reported the lowest monthly cost-per-click (CPC) at £2, and Alaska Airlines reported has the highest at £11.
The report highlights the importance of budget efficiency by comparing monthly ad spend with estimated CPC in relation to your competitors, see who has the highest and lowest CPC. To maximise the effectiveness of your budget, it’s essential to focus on driving CPC down while maintaining or improving campaign performance. In this report, Alaska Airlines has the lowest estimate monthly ad spend at £16,400, and British Airways has the highest at £7,200,000.
By optimising targeting, refining ad copy, and leveraging data to identify high-converting opportunities, you can ensure every click delivers maximum value. This approach not only stretches your budget further but also boosts your return on ad spend (ROAS), enabling you to achieve stronger results without simply increasing expenditure.
Savvy digital marketers know that having a technically sound website is an essential component of a successful fully integrated digital strategy - plus a site capable of maximising conversion performance. For airlines, an easy-to-navigate site can decrease bounce rates and increase website traffic. All airlines should regularly monitor their website for broken links and make updates to any inactive links to ensure they’re not directing visitors to dead ends.
In our previous audit, Alaska Airlines received the most 404 errors (75). This quarter, Alaska Airlines has decreased their total to 56, no longer making them the airline to watch. Currently, Virgin Atlantic has the most 404 errors (124). Maintaining a consistent URL structure can significantly reduce the likelihood of 404 errors. When websites frequently change their URL patterns without proper planning, it increases the risk of broken links both internally and externally.
When 62% of consumers are less likely to convert if they have a negative mobile site experience, ensuring that your site is quick and easy to load makes a significant improvement on your overall conversion rates. As with ensuring your site is technically compliant, tyre and servicing brands must ensure their site experience is fast and efficient so users don't turn elsewhere.
In our last audit, Alaska Airlines reported the slowest mobile site speed (1). This quarter, Alaska Airlines remains the airline with the slowest mobile site speed, though they’ve since slightly increased their score to 2. Reducing server response time is crucial for mobile speed. This can be achieved by choosing a reliable hosting provider, optimising databases, and ensuring efficient backend processes.
Domain authority is an essential metric for measuring the effectiveness of SEO performance, and helps create a reliable overall gauge of how effective your site is at achieving organic traffic, i.e. ‘free’ traffic that isn’t gained through sponsored ads. Airlines could look to collaborate with, and outreach to, local & national publications, and travel sites, in order to build their backlink profile, as well as improve referral traffic.
A ‘good’ DA really comes down to how your competitors are performing, however it’s generally considered average between 40 and 50, good between 50 and 60, and excellent above 60. In our previous report, American Airlines received the lowest DA score (54). This quarter, American Airlines has made improvements to increase their score to 80 — moving them up the leaderboard. Currently, the airline with the lowest DA score is Air France (62). Domain authority provides a long-term perspective on SEO progress. Unlike short-term metrics such as daily traffic fluctuations, it reflects sustained efforts in content creation, link building, and technical optimisation. This makes it a useful indicator of overall growth.
A strong organic performance is strategically important as it ensures your site ranks above competitors for key, transactional keywords. When 93% of your customers won’t go past the first page of Google, your absence or lack of targeting for essential keywords will cost you conversions. Though you may expect traffic across the travel sector to shrink, in response to the cost of living crisis, we've found all holiday sectors we specialise in have grown over the past 12 months. This could be down to consumers forgoing day to day treats in order to prioritise a holiday, or from customers heading straight to airline and provider websites in search of a cheaper deal from booking directly.
Four airlines reported a drop in organic traffic on desktop, with Alaska Airlines still seeing the biggest drop (-37%). On mobile, three airlines reported a decrease in organic traffic, with American Airlines seeing the biggest loss (-35%). Geo-location features on mobile devices influence search results. Users are often shown personalised, location-based content, which can change traffic patterns. Websites should ensure their location data and metadata are accurate and up to date.
Google Universal Search Results is an evolving opportunity to make your pages visible on a SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Universal results often appear before traditional listings and are eye-catching for users. Universal search results refer to rankings on a SERP that are not the traditional ‘blue line’ Google link, and a retailer can appear for universal search results without being strong in standard rankings. 'Reviews' and 'people also ask' results are a great opportunity for airlines to improve trust, and answer key questions, without users even needing to (initially) leave the SERP.
EasyJet continues to secure the most Universal Search appearances (179,589) — an increase from 124,287 previously. The majority of their appearances came from ‘images’ (142,800).
Longtail keywords are often considered high intent and potentially more likely to convert as a searcher is being more specific. Optimising for longtail keywords also puts your content strategy in a strong position to rank for retailer new search terms as they enter Google’s index. Airlines should take particular care to optimise for longtail keywords including high conversion-intent phrases, such as 'last minute flight New York' or 'fly to Boston via Dublin'.
EasyJet continues to secure the most longtail keyword appearances for position 3 (39,355) — a decrease from 39,783 previously. EasyJet also continues to secure the most longtail keyword appearances for position 4–10 (84,530) — an increase from 82,565 previously. Longtail keywords can help reduce bounce rate by attracting users who have a very specific intent. When someone searches using a detailed phrase, they are more likely to find content that closely matches what they are looking for, which encourages them to stay on the page longer.
With the number of Facebook users in the United Kingdom (UK) hitting over 44 million users in 2023, it is not surprising that companies have jumped at the opportunity to advertise on the social media platform. Facebook’s UK digital advertising revenue has been estimated to have breached 2.6b GB pounds in 2019.
We’ve included screenshots of British Airways’ sponsored Facebook posts. This airline included a maximum of two lines of text, helping to make their content easier and quicker to read at a glance.
When it comes to social media and on-site content strategies, it is important to release content that has a longer shelf life. An article is considered 'Evergreen' if it has maintained its relevancy to an audience for longer. It's great for your retailer engagement, but great for Google too, who will recognise content which achieves traffic over a long period of time. Airlines can create content based on flying, general travel information, or even about popular destinations that are likely to grab attention from social media users.
Air France secured the most Facebook Likes (7,200,000), and Air France secured the most Instagram followers (1,900,000). Facebook was the most popular social media platforms of all brands. Alaska Airlines received the highest total engagement rate (20,366), and Aer Lingus secured the highest average engagement (116).
20% of people in the UK have a disability – 2 million of which are people living with sight loss. In addition, 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women have some degree of colour vision deficiency. When websites are not designed to meet these needs, retailers lose customer interest as they turn elsewhere. Airlines must be accessible for all, as poor digital accessibility on their sites may suggest to users that their flights themselves may be an uncomfortable experience.
In our previous report, EasyJet received the most accessibility alerts (50). This quarter, EasyJet remains the airline to watch, reporting a total of 50 again. Inconsistent handling of accessibility alerts can create unpredictability on a website. If alerts appear differently across pages or behave inconsistently, users may struggle to understand how to resolve issues. This lack of consistency can further erode confidence in the site’s usability.
To get a copy of the full report, please complete the enquiry form. If you want to talk to us about accelerating your digital performance, please call us on 01543 410014 or schedule a call with Rory Tarplee.