Business travelers’ ticketing,refund, and exchange behavior

This study investigates when and why business travelers make changes to their airline itineraries. Results are based on tickets purchased over a 9-month period by employees of a university in Atlanta, US. The ability to track repeat passengers purchases across time allows analysis of how passenger cancellation behavior differs by frequency of travel as well as by carrier. Results indicate that frequent travelers and those purchasing from Delta versus AirTran are more likely to request ticketing changes. Other factors influencing cancellation behavior include the time from ticket purchase, time before flight departure, and whether the itinerary is for the outbound or inbound portion of a trip.     

The effect of airline service quality on passengers’ behavioural intentions: a Korean case study

This paper seeks to improving our understanding of air passengers’ decision-making processes by testing a conceptual model that considers service expectation, service perception, service value, passenger satisfaction, airline image, and behavioural intentions simultaneously. For this testing, path analysis via maximum likelihood estimator is applied to data collected from Korean international air passengers. Service value, passenger satisfaction, and airline image are each found to have a direct effect on air passengers’ decision-making processes.     

Optimal fares regulation for Britain’s railways

This paper reports the findings of an economic evaluation of fares regulation options for Britain’s railways. The evaluation is based on the development of an econometric demand model based on a large scale survey of passenger preferences. The model was applied to comprehensive case study analysis of candidate fares regulation options based on the notion of a ‘fares basket’ and it was found that for any given price cap, any specific objective of revenue generation will be attained with lower welfare penalty if the basket is defined widely rather than narrowly.     

Measuring airports’ operating efficiency: a summary of the 2003 ATRS global airport benchmarking report

This paper provides a partial summary of the 2003 ATRS (Air Transport Research Society) Global Airport Benchmarking Report which uses the annual data for 2000–2001. The objective of the ATRS benchmarking report is to measure and compare the performance of several important aspects of airport management and operation: productivity and efficiency, unit costs and cost competitiveness, financial results. The report also examines the relationships between various performance measures and airport characteristics in order to better understand the observed differences in airport performance. This particular paper extracted from the benchmarking report focuses on measuring and comparing operating efficiency performance of the world’s major airports. In particular, the paper presents the results on the airports’ Variable Factor Productivities (VFP) after removing the effects of the variables beyond managerial control. In the process, it identifies the effects of various factors influencing airport’s VFP, and computes a ’residual’ VFP index as an indicator for airports’ operations efficiency.     

The Warsaw limit: medieval unbreakable and unconscionable

The role of the Warsaw Convention in the modern world is increasingly under scrutiny. This paper focuses on the carrier's right to limit its liability under Warsaw as amended by the Hague Protocol, and examines three questions in particular. First, what are the origins of limitation of liability? Second, can one can ever really hope to break the limit under Article 25 of the Warsaw Convention? Third, can we really justify limiting passenger claims any longer? The answer to the first question is ‘medieval’ and the (not unsurprising) conclusion on the second and third questions is ‘no’ to each. The notion of breaking the limit is a chimera. And the notion that the present regime of limitation against passenger claims under Warsaw should continue to exist into the 21st century is, to the author's mind (and others), unthinkable. The industry must address the disquiet regarding limitation of passenger claims before the momentum to sweep away all forms of limitation becomes unstoppable.     

Assessment of passenger benefits brought about by international airport projects

This study sets forth a method to calculate the passenger benefits of an international airport project and assesses the passenger benefits brought about by two international airport projects.An international airport project mainly increases the number of flights and the possibility of determining convenient timetables. It does not significantly decrease the flight time of international travel. Thus, the user benefits brought about by an international airport project cannot be expressed by the conventional concept of ‘traveling time’, which is the term generally used.In this study, the ‘Expected Value of Traveling Time’ and ‘Expected Value of Generalized Cost’ are presented as indexes to evaluate improvements in convenience brought about by international airport projects. The passenger benefits of two airport projects in Japan are measured by consumer surplus calculated from the demand function using these indexes.These indexes are accurately calculated taking into consideration factors such as scheduling connections between domestic and international transport, and so enable a grasp not only of reductions in flight time, but also of passenger benefits resulting from international airport projects, such as increases in the number of flights and reductions in the time required to make transfers during domestic travel.     

Airline in-flight entertainment: the passengers’ perspective

Following relaxation of economic regulation in many aviation markets, the competition amongst airlines has intensified in recent years. This has resulted in improvements in airline products, especially in the in-flight services. One of the areas on which airlines have focused their attention is the provision of personal in-flight entertainment (IFE). In 1998, airlines spent $1.8 billion on IFE. However, the industry is faced with a number of questions in relation to such levels of investment: Are the investments justified? Does IFE influence passengers’ choice of airline? Does IFE have a revenue-generating potential? What does the future hold as far as the IFE services are concerned? This paper addresses these questions based on a passengers survey and literature review. The results indicate that while IFE is not amongst the primary factors affecting passengers’ choice, it contributes greatly to passengers’ satisfaction with airline services. While provision of IFE can currently act as a differentiating factor, in the future it will become part of passengers’ expectations. It has also become apparent that, while IFE has the potential to generate some revenue, it would not be enough to cover the total costs associated with the installation and running of IFE systems. The impact of IFE would be felt, indirectly, through increase in passenger loyalty which should have a positive impact on airline revenues.     

Estimating the sensitivity of small airport catchments to competition from larger airports: A case study in Indiana

An accurate estimation of airport catchment area enables airlines and airport operators to make informed decisions and to target potential markets precisely. This study uses the state of Indiana as a case study to estimate traffic leakage from the local airport, Indianapolis International Airport (IND), to two large hub airports in Illinois, the neighboring state of Indiana, namely Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD) and Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW). By using a decision making model that considers flying cost and access cost, this study simulates from local passengers' perspective which origin airport delivers the most cost effective flight itinerary. Using the top 20 routes of IND in 2018 as model inputs, the catchment area of two Chicago based airports in Indiana with variable coverage is plotted for different traveling scenarios. The analysis shows that an airport catchment area is sensitive to location, service level and traffic volume of competing airports nearby, as well as purpose of travel (business or leisure), number of travelers in a group (single, couple, family or multiple), length of trip, destination (domestic or international), preference of airlines (network carrier or budget carrier), and frequent flyer program status (premier member or general member). These findings could be valuable to all three aforementioned airports as well as airlines serving these airports when allocating operational and marketing resources. More importantly, this study creates a generic model that could be used by virtually any airport to estimate scenario-based catchment area using readily available itinerary and spatial data without resorting to expensive passenger surveys.     

Aircraft and passenger recovery during an aircraft’s unexpected unavailability

Airlines design their initial schedules under the assumption that all resources will be available on time and flights will operate as planned. However, some disruptions occur due to mechanical failures and unexpected delays of maintenance, making the aircraft unavailable for a certain period of time. These deviations from the initial plan result in high operational costs in addition to the serious inconveniences experienced by passengers. In order to handle aircraft and passenger recovery problems simultaneously, we work on integrated networks at which aircraft routings and passenger itineraries are superimposed. Consequently, we could calculate the actual profit and cancellation cost by evaluating each passenger itinerary while considering the seat capacity limitations. In our computational results, we use a daily schedule of a major U.S. airline and clearly demonstrate that there is an optimal trade-off between operating and passenger-related costs.     

Investigating the effects of economies of scope on firms’ pricing behavior: Empirical evidence from the US domestic airline industry

This study investigates to what extent cross-product (belly cargo) output affects (passenger ticket) prices in the US domestic airline industry. The empirical analysis indicates that greater cargo volumes generally result in lower air fares, presumably as a result of the airlines’ realization of economies of scope. This magnitude of this price effect, however, depends on certain firm and route market characteristics. The findings of this study add to extant research on economies of scope, multi-product yield management and airline pricing and provide important insights for policy makers and airline managers alike.     

New-entrant airlines’ life-cycle analysis: growth, decline and collapse

Many new-entrant carriers enjoyed fast growth and by the same token sudden failure, therefore raising interest in the characteristics of their life cycles. The article proposes a different approach to life-cycle analysis of airlines by integrating an ‘evolution path’ based on size classification with a ‘traditional life-cycle path’ that assumes two distinctive routes to failure. On the basis of a survey conducted among managers of new-entrant airlines in Europe and the USA, various factors were identified that showed significant differences between stages of evolution. The findings do support that new-entrant airlines have similar life-cycle characteristics as firms in general.     

The impact of COVID-19 on airline passenger travel behavior: An exploratory analysis on the Chinese aviation market

China was the first airline market in the world to be hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been gradually recovering as the pandemic is largely contained domestically. However, with the global pandemic spread and great uncertainty, there has been a remarkable change in airline passengers’ travel behavior. This paper collected air passenger-level data from TravelSky in the Chinese market. In addition to the analyses on aggregate passenger flow patterns, this paper explores changes in airline passenger travel behavior, such as ticket booking time, age distribution of passengers, refunds and ticket changes, and passenger arrival time at airports. This is one of the first studies to focus on micro-level changes in airline passenger travel behavior by using objective passenger-level data. The pandemic-induced psychological changes in air travelers are explored, providing useful managerial and policymaking implications for the normalization of the pandemic and the recovery of the airline market in the post-pandemic era.     

International air transportation and economic development

Legislation in 1977 and 1978 effectively deregulated the US domestic air cargo and air passenger transportation industries. International air transportation, largely as the result of the ‘Open Skies’ initiative from 1979 has also gradually been liberalized but progress has been geographically and temporally uneven. This study is concerned with extending the Open Skies concept and in accessing the benefits to the US economy of removing the remaining impediments to the provision of free market services involving, in particular, the full transatlantic market. It initially reviews some of the previous work that has looked at links between industrial location and the quality of international air transportation. It develops a modeling framework to examine the implications of further liberalization on the economies of US regions that currently have limited international services. The work involves a macro-analysis of the impact of European international services for 41 Metropolitan Standard Areas.     

Passenger complaints under irregular airline conditions – cross-cultural study

Punctuality is seen as key component of airline service quality. This paper examines cross-cultural differences in passenger complaints regarding irregular airline conditions. Analysis of four clusters of air travelers in South Korea – from South Korea, Japan, China, and America – exhibit significantly differences in their attitudes suggestion important cultural variations.     

Small community airport choice behavior analysis: A case study of GTR

The issue of airport selection attracts considerable attention. However, most studies focus on using advanced discrete choice models to analyze airport choice behavior in metropolitan areas with several closely located, competing airports. This paper addresses passengers’ choice behavior in selecting between local small community airports and more distant major commercial airport. It looks at factors affecting air travelers’ airport choice behavior in cities with small community air service. Data relating to the Golden Triangle Regional Airport in Mississippi is used in logistic regressions to identify the key factors that influence air travelers’ airport choices. Ticket price, experience with Golden Triangle Regional Airport and flight schedule were found to be the strongest effects.     

Inter-metropolitan airport substitution by consumers in an asymmetrical airfare environment: Harrisburg, Philadelphia and Baltimore

Airfares vary significantly over space, and can even vary substantially between airports in relatively close proximity with one another. With the spread of various Web tools, consumers are armed with more information than ever to assess fare and service differences between competing airlines and competing airports. This leads to the possibility of airport substitution for particular routes. Linear regression models are developed that suggest, despite the 70–90 mile distance, that passenger substitution may be occurring from Harrisburg and Philadelphia to Baltimore based as a result of differential fares, low-fare service, and other factors.     

Influence of bus stop land use characteristics on passenger waiting time satisfaction ‐ A case study in Guangzhou

Researchers usually conduct a questionnaire survey at bus stops to obtain data regarding the satisfaction of bus passengers with waiting times. The results are affected by many factors. Among them, the land use of the bus stops was proved to have an important impact on the survey results. The main contribution of this paper is the introduction of propensity score matching (PSM) into the evaluation of passenger waiting time satisfaction. By eliminating interference factors, this paper can quantify the impact of the various land use types of bus stops. On this basis, a method to modify the survey results of passenger waiting time satisfaction is proposed. This paper takes data pertaining to passenger satisfaction with bus service quality in Guangzhou City in 2018–2019 as an example, and the findings include that: different land use types of sites have different effects (positive or negative) on passenger waiting time scores. Also, matching propensity scores can balance the distribution of covariates between the treatment and control groups, effectively excluding the interference of other factors. After correcting the original rating results, this study found that 61.84% of the routes' waiting time ratings were overestimated. This finding indicates that data correction is necessary to accurately identify passenger waiting time ratings. The waiting time satisfaction of people using residential stations can best reflect the actual level. Therefore, it is suggested that stations with residential land use in each administrative area should be taken as representatives to conduct a waiting satisfaction survey.     

Airport security screening and changing passenger satisfaction: An exploratory assessment

Since September 11, 2001, airport screening procedures in the US have been continuously evolving. For example, the passenger screening process is now trying to strike a balance between security and customer service (i.e. minimizing wait times). This balancing act has important implications not only for passenger safety, but also for the financial stability of an airline industry that is faced with volatile energy prices and sometimes burdensome labor agreements. Using data from 2002 and 2003, we estimate multinomial logit models to uncover factors that determine passenger satisfaction at security screening points. Our findings show that, while wait times at security screening points are significant determinants of passenger satisfaction, many other factors come into play. Moreover, the results show that the determinants of customer satisfaction are not stable over time. This suggests that further refinements in airport screening procedures should give careful consideration to the factors underlying passenger satisfaction, and how these might change over time, rather than focusing exclusively on minimizing wait times at passenger screening points.     

Effective ways to grow urban bus markets – a synthesis of evidence

This paper provides a synthesis of the evidence on the patronage growth performance of bus improvement measures in urban settings. The evidence includes a summary of experience in Europe, North America and Australasia focusing on service improvement measures including network structure and service levels, bus priority measures, vehicles and stop infrastructure, fares and ticketing systems, passenger information and marketing, personal safety and security and synergy effects of measures. The source is the research literature and documented experienced from a series of studies undertaken by the authors over the last decade. It includes the results of an international bus expert ‘Delphi’ survey concerning bus improvement measures focussed on patronage growth. The paper synthesises the evidence to identify measures which are most likely to grow patronage including consideration of cost-effectiveness of measures.     

Future mobility in India: Implications for energy demand and CO2 emission

The aim of this study is threefold. First, it aims to provide a reliable data set of land-based passenger traffic volumes in India from 1950–1951 to 2000–2001 for the five major motorized modes of transport—two-wheelers, cars, auto-rickshaws, buses, and railways. Second, based on this data set, it aims to estimate the long-term trends in motorized traffic volume and modal split up to the year 2020–2021. Third, based on the projected values of aggregate traffic volume and modal split, this study aims to estimate the level and growth of energy demand and CO₂ emission from the passenger transport sector in India. It is found that the motorized traffic volume in India will very nearly touch the mark of 13 000 billion passenger-kilometers in 2020–2021, out of which 91.7% will be provided by the roads and the rest by railways. If there is no reduction in modal energy and CO₂ intensities, energy demand is projected to increase from 1060.8 peta joules in 2000–2001 to 5584.4 peta joules in 2020–2021 and CO₂ emission will increase from 19.80 to 93.25 million metric tons of carbon equivalent during the same period.