The Q3 2026 benchmarking report for airlines has just been published. Learn how the top 11 airlines perform across the digital space.
The latest Q3 2026 benchmarking report for airlines has just been published. It covers the largest 11 airlines, including Aer Lingus, Aurigny, Titan Airways, Tui, British Airways, Wizz Air, easyJet, Jet2.com, Ryanair, Loganair, and Virgin Atlantic.
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 Q3 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 11 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 Q3 2026, the average monthly budget wastage across these airlines was £729,821 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, Loganair, Virgin Atlantic, and Aer Lingus reported the lowest monthly cost-per-click (CPC) at £2, and Tui reported the highest at £7.
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, Aurigny has the lowest estimate monthly ad spend at £5,660, and Tui has the highest at £20,700,000.
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.
This quarter, easyJet reported the most 404 errors (2,432). Regularly identifying and fixing 404 errors helps create a smoother browsing experience for visitors. By ensuring every link leads to relevant, accessible content, websites can improve user satisfaction, build trust and encourage visitors to return.
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.
This quarter, the mobile site speed ranged between 34 and 3, with Virgin Atlantic at the bottom of the leaderboard. Customers expect websites to function smoothly across all devices. When a mobile site performs poorly, it can create disappointment, especially if competitors offer much faster and easier browsing experiences.
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. This quarter, Ryanair reported the highest DA score (85), and Titan Airways is the airlines to watch (49) — scoring in the ‘average’ zone. As domain authority grows, websites may find it easier to earn natural backlinks. Publishers and content creators are often more willing to reference trusted sources, creating a positive cycle of continued authority 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.
Six brands reported a decrease in organic traffic on desktop, with Aer Lingus seeing the biggest loss (-89%). On mobile, five brands reported a decrease in organic traffic, with Aurigny seeing the biggest loss (-17%). Mobile users are often browsing while travelling or multitasking, which can lead to shorter sessions and different browsing habits. As a result, traffic volumes and engagement levels may differ significantly from desktop visitors.
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 secured the most Universal Search appearances (116,390). The majority of their appearances came from ‘images’ (83,000).
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 secured the most longtail keyword appearances for position 3 (42,908) and positions 4–10 (84,315). Longtail keywords can help brands compete in crowded industries where broad search terms are highly competitive. Ranking for multiple niche phrases can collectively generate significant amounts of organic SEO traffic.
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 Virgin Atlantic’s sponsored Facebook posts. Vertical videos (such as 4:5 or 9:16) fill much more of a smartphone screen than landscape images, creating a more immersive experience.
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.
Tui secured the most Facebook Likes (6.5m), and Ryanair secured the most Instagram followers (1.9m).
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.
This quarter, Loganair reported the most accessibility alerts (136), and Tui reported the most contrast errors (21). Contrast errors on websites can make text difficult to read, particularly for users with visual impairments or colour blindness. When there isn’t enough distinction between text and background, important information may become unclear or even invisible. This creates unnecessary barriers to accessing content.
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.