Investigating passengers’ intentions to use technology-based self check-in services

As more and more airlines have introduced technology-based self check-in services, it has become increasingly important to understand the factors affecting airline passengers’ attitudes toward this new form of check-in services and also their intentions, especially from Asian passengers’ perspectives. An empirical study was conducted among Taiwanese airline passengers using the technology acceptance model (TAM) as the basic research model while considering additional factors for further analysis such as external stimuli, perceived service quality, perceived behavioral control, need for service, and perceived risk. The findings revealed that attitude and external stimuli best explain passengers’ behavioral intentions to use the kiosks, whereas perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use have little effect on their intentions. These findings suggest that airlines in Taiwan should persuade passengers to acquire a more positive attitude toward the new check-in kiosks and should consider implementation of incentive strategies in encouraging passengers to adopt the self check-in service.     

Airline services marketing by domestic and foreign firms: differences from the customers’ viewpoint

Based on a survey of 1014 passengers of five European airlines, this paper reveals differences between passengers on the Turkish domestic airline and those on four foreign airlines on the same flight destinations with respect to demographic profiles, behavioral characteristics, understanding of airline service dimensions, and satisfaction levels. Differences between the two passenger groups are highlighted in terms of age, sex, education, occupation, sector affiliation, location of domicile, travel purpose, travel frequency, service expectations, and satisfaction levels. It is concluded that the differences in consumer profiles and expectations are valuable clues for domestic and foreign airline firms in understanding their consumers and in designing their marketing strategies.     

Segmentation of passengers using full-service and low-cost carriers – Evidence from Taiwan

Low-cost carriers in Taiwan have rapidly drawn a large number of passengers away from full-service carriers in recent years. However, many passengers still stick with traditional airlines as their primary air carriers. These two groups of passengers should differ in terms of their personal and trip characteristics, valuations of factors in determining an airline, and perceptions of need for ancillary services. The present paper compares the profiles of passengers using different types of air services in Taiwan using data collected from an online survey and assesses the potential of principal component analysis with biplot technique to define different passengers based on their preferences of services and valuations of the importance of factors. Our study shows that passengers of full-service and low-cost carriers have different trip characteristics; principal component analysis is applicable for this context of passenger profile segmentations.     

A voice in the skies: Listening to airline passenger preferences

This study aims to identify the impact levels and priorities in the service expectations that passengers have when identifying a preferred airline. The results are based on probabilities and impacts, and can help airlines to accurately understand the preference criteria of their passengers. The priorities of the passengers may differ according to the airline chosen; therefore, the probabilities shown in this study can inform senior airline managers about the passenger perspective. This study uses the Stochastic Multicriteria Acceptability Analysis-2 (SMAA-2) method. SMAA-2 identifies the priorities and impact levels of passengers’ expectations on airline selection, and the ranking of alternative firms according to the probability. According to the obtained results, Airline 3 (AF₃) is the most preferred airline with the highest confidence rate. This airline operates based on a low-cost model that allows passengers to choose additional services for additional charges. The passenger expectations that have the highest impact on the preference when selecting an airline are 1) ticket prices, 2) punctuality, and 3) booking convenience. Free in-flight food and beverages, the variety and quality of the food and beverages, and voyager miles programs for loyal customers are found to have no impact on the ranking of airlines. The expectations identified by the passengers in this study are related to the outcome quality dimension, with services dominated by flexible features. The findings of this study define the passenger as a rational decision maker who is price sensitive.     

What are passenger perspectives regarding airlines' environmental protection? An empirical investigation in Taiwan

Many airlines recognize the importance of environmental protection. The airlines implement a number of environment-friendly activities related to in-flight services and wish to trigger passengers' support and therefore inquire as to their preferences. Because these activities are not identical between airlines, it is not known which items are actually supported and which items are opposed. In this paper, major airline environmental protection activities were collated, and the Smart partial least square software was used to analyse data from 442 passengers who have experienced air travel in the past 3 years. The results showed that in general, passengers would prefer to choose airlines that supported environmental protection activities. However, several activity items would be rejected if passengers felt their rights or interests being compromised. It was also indicated that people from countries at different stages of economic development had varying preferences regarding their support of airlines' environmental protection activities, and the young generation had more concern about environmental protection than others. The findings of this research could be beneficial for airlines setting up their differentiated marketing strategies for enhancing both environmental protection efforts and business performance.     

Managing valuable Taiwanese airline passengers using knowledge discovery in database techniques

Taiwanese domestic airline passenger loads have declined over the past decade, and the inauguration of the Taiwan high-speed rail service in 2007 has further intensified the competition facing the airlines. Gaining and retaining valuable passengers thus has become essential in maintaining domestic airline profits in the increasingly competitive transportation market. This study develops a knowledge discovery in database process, including the recency, frequency, and monetary model and the C5.0 decision tree. The former is used to assess passenger value, while C5.0 is used to mine demographic, travel behavior, and critical service quality information for valuable passengers. The results identify valuable passenger characteristics that can help Taiwanese airlines maximize their number and retention.     

Examining airline service quality from a process perspective

Airline service is composed of a set of processes. Passengers may have distinct expectations at different stages of the service chain. In this study, air travel was divided into ground and in-flight service stages. We first examined the gap between passengers’ service expectations and actual service received and the gaps associated with passenger service expectations and the perceptions of these expectations by frontline managers and employees of a Taiwanese airline. Next, importance–performance analysis was used to construct service attribute evaluation maps to identify areas for improvement. Results revealed that these gaps did exist and passengers were more concerned about the responsiveness and assurance dimensions from airline frontline staff. The tangibles dimension was considered more important when evaluating in-flight service quality than when evaluating ground service quality.     

Exploring characteristics of passengers using traditional and low-cost airlines: A case study of Belgrade Airport

Low cost carriers entered the Serbian air travel market after Serbia joined the European Common Aviation Area (ECAA) in 2006, prompting the development of healthy competition among airlines and resulting in significant traffic increase at Belgrade Airport. The aim of this paper is to examine the characteristics of passengers traveling on low-cost carriers (LCC) in comparison with those traveling on traditional airlines by using cluster analysis, and to provide practical implications to airport management in tailoring their strategies to meet growing demand. A comprehensive passenger survey was recently conducted at Belgrade Airport on the routes where competition between traditional and LCC carrier exists. The results reveal that emigrants, primarily encouraged by favorable fares, constitute a substantial portion of LCC passengers. Affordable service offered by LCC has also been a positive stimulus for emigrants, who purchase tickets for their friends and relatives to visit them in their host countries. On the other hand, passengers using traditional airlines could be generally classified into two segments, those who fly on business and those who fly for leisure purposes, and each had specific needs when choosing their airline.     

Recovering costs through price and service differentiation: Accounting for exogenous information on attribute processing strategies in airline choice

The entry of low cost airlines has thrown out a challenge to all airlines to find ways of attracting passengers, through a mix of fare discounting, greater frequency, improved flight times and no-frill's levels of on-board service. These competitive strategies have an impact on cost recovery. As airlines seek business in an increasingly heterogeneous passenger market, a greater understanding of what matters to potential passengers in choosing an airline grows in importance. Traditional studies of passenger airline choice assume that all attributes matter, but some to a lesser extent. What happens to the empirical evidence on willingness to pay when specific attributes are totally ignored by particular passengers? In this paper, we examine the impact of individual-specific attribute processing strategies (APS) on the inclusion/exclusion of attributes on the parameter estimates and behavioural outputs of models of airline service and fare level choice. Modelling practice assumes that whilst respondents may exhibit preference heterogeneity, they employ a homogenous APS with regards to how they process the presence/absence of attributes of stated choice (SC) experiments. We demonstrate how information collected exogenous of the SC experiment on whether respondents either ignored or considered each attribute of the SC task may be used in the estimation process, and how such information may be used to provide outputs that are attribute processing strategies segment specific.     

The effect of frequent flyer programs: A case study of the Korean airline industry

Frequent flyer programs are important for airlines in Korea in their marketing of services. This paper develops a conceptual model to investigate the effect of such programs by examining the relationships them and, airline service quality, pricing, passenger satisfaction, airline image, and airline selection. Path analysis is used to analyze data collected from Korean international air passengers. The results show that frequent flyer programs have direct and indirect effects on pricing, passenger satisfaction, airline image, and airline selection. In addition, their effects on passengers' selections are significantly different between Korean and foreign airlines.     

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.     

Price dispersion,competition, and the role of online travel agents: Evidence from business routes in the Italian airline market

In this article, using data from the Italian airline market, we study the role of online travel agents (OTAs) in driving price dispersion as compared to the effect of airlines’ websites. Specifically, we investigate how distinctive factors between OTAs and airlines’ direct channels influence price dispersion. We find that after controlling for OTAs’ features related to airline competition, price dispersion should be lower in the OTA channel relative to airlines’ direct channels. On the other hand, we also find that OTAs’ features related to the presence of airline competition play in favor of higher price dispersion in such indirect channel.     

Exploring the green image of airlines: Passenger perceptions and airline choice

During the last few years there has been an increasing trend for companies to market their products or services as green or environmentally friendly as part of their corporate social responsibility. Few studies have analyzed the effects of this recent focus on the environment and its impact on airline passengers. Therefore, we examine passengers' general attitudes towards the green image of different airlines, perceived differences in eco-friendliness among these airlines, and effects on airline choice during booking. We also investigate how passengers' recent experiences with an airline affect perceived eco-friendliness of that airline. In addition we compare passenger ratings of airline eco-friendliness to those published by independent 3rd parties. Our findings show that the green image of airlines does influence airline choice during booking. We observed a passenger willingness to pay extra for a green image, however, not as much as their willingness to pay extra for amenities, such as additional legroom.     

Advance purchase behaviors of air passengers: A continuous logit model

Modeling the advance purchase behaviors of air passengers is essential when airlines develop revenue management strategies. Therefore, this study empirically investigates advance purchase behaviors based on the air ticket transaction data by using a continuous logit model. The estimation results show that advance purchase behaviors are significantly affected by price, price uncertainty, time of day (morning, afternoon and evening flight), days of week (flight on Friday), months of year (peak or off-peak seasons), and consecutive holiday. Accordingly, different pricing strategies should be used for different flights to maximize revenue.     

The decline of the traditional travel agent model

This article analyzes the struggle between traditional travel agencies and airlines to gain control of the Spanish airline services market. Also analyzed is the strong emergence of a third player, online travel portals that act as online travel agencies. We use a multinomial logit model to study the influence of 27 socio-economic factors and trip attributes on passenger purchase channel choice. The results show that the profile of a passenger who has a greater likelihood of making his/her bookings online is that of a young person, a student or educated to a high level, a habitual traveler, booking a simple journey and using an LCC. The factors linked to an increased likelihood of making purchases by phone include: being male, middle-aged, on a business or short trip, and the passengers usually use a travel agency. Finally, passengers who are over 65 years of age, with a lower academic level, who use a travel agency and are going to make a more complicated journey, are more likely to purchase their tickets in-store.     

Determinants of passengers’ choice of airline check-in services: A case study of American,Australian, Korean,and Taiwanese passengers

This paper investigates factors that influence whether air travelers’ choose conventional counter or self-service check-in, including kiosk and web check-in. It uses data collected from American, Australian, Korean, and Taiwanese passengers. The data suggests that a passenger’s choice of check-in service is strongly dependent on nationality and previous experiences of checking-in; i.e. a cultural bias exists in the behavior of passengers using airline check-in services. Taiwanese passengers prefer to use the conventional counter check-in service but Korean, Australian and American air travelers use more self-service check-in facilities. The analysis also highlights that passengers’ perceptions of the attributes of the check-in service significantly determine their choice of check-in option.     

Latent class models of international air carrier choice

This paper uses a market segmentation approach to identify airline passengers’ potential segments and preferences toward international air carriers. The modeling approaches consist of the stated preference method and the latent class model. The stated choice experiments were designed based on service attributes in the international airline choice context. Empirical data was collected from airline passengers who have flown from Taipei to Tokyo or from Taipei to Hong Kong. The latent class model accommodating preference heterogeneity outperforms the multinomial logit model as indication of a better approach to analyze airline choice behavior. The latent class model with individual socioeconomic and trip characteristics in segment membership functions also improved model fit relative to the corresponding latent class model without individual characteristics. The values of willingness to pay for service attribute improvements vary across international air routes and segments. Passengers are willing to pay more for better service quality. In order to develop effective marketing and operational strategies for the international air travel market, this study highlights the importance of exploring airline choice behaviors by routes and segments.     

High-technology employment and hub airports

Deregulation of the US domestic air transport market in 1978 brought significant benefits to air travelers. The scheduled airlines have been given the freedom to improve their efficiency through being able to adopt efficient network strategies and more effective operating practices. This study examines empirically the advantages enjoyed by those passengers having access to a major hub airport. These often include more direct services, more frequent services and a wider range of interconnecting destinations. We seek to examine the benefits that local urban areas enjoy as the result of a major airline selecting the region as the fulcrum point for its hub-and-spoke services.     

A study on the importance of airline selection attributes by airline type: An emphasis on the difference of opinion in between Korean and overseas aviation experts

The main purpose of this research is to understand the relative importance of airline selection attributes that are considered important by passengers when selecting an airline. Specifically, we analyzed how the attribute selections differed based on airline types, a Full Service Carrier (FSC) and a Low Cost Carrier (LCC). For this purpose, a Delphi analysis was performed with 34 Korean aviation experts and 32 overseas aviation experts as the target sample groups. Statistical tests including Mann-Whitney U Test and Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test, were used to analyze the selection attributes. In the case of FSCs, safety, flight schedule, cabin interior, and fast check-in processes were considered to be important selection attributes whereas for LCCs, air fare level, flight safety, the convenience of air ticket purchasing procedures, and additional charges were considered to be the important selection attributes. Additionally, there was a difference in the importance of airline selection attributes depending on whether it was a Korean or overseas aviation market. The result of these findings may be utilized as basic data in establishing a marketing strategy for an airline company to attract more passengers.     

An analysis of traveler need for and willingness to purchase airline dynamic packaging: A Korean case study

This study analyzes (1) the need among air travelers for commission-based ancillary products and services from airline websites via dynamic packaging and (2) the willingness to purchase them. For this purpose, a survey is conducted with 2030 airline customers in Korea. This study aims to provide insights into Korean traveler preference to enable airlines serving Korean customers to formulate and implement successful business strategies that incorporate dynamic packaging into airline websites to expand ancillary revenues. The results confirm that Korean travelers demonstrate the need for and willingness to purchase commission-based ancillaries when purchasing tickets from airlines. On average, commission-based ancillary products are positively received by respondents. Airport transfers (e.g. rail and shuttle services), foreign currency exchange offers, and travel insurance are the most popular. Female travelers, travelers in their 20s, and frequent travelers (10 + times a year) report a significantly higher need for and willingness to purchase a set of commission-based ancillaries with flights from airline websites. Willingness to purchase third-party products from airlines is higher than in previous studies, and the preference rankings also differ. This study supports the viability of commission-based ancillary offerings from airline websites targeting Korean travelers. It shows the potential for airlines to successfully upsell and cross-sell via dynamic packaging strategies, one of the first steps toward becoming competitive travel retailers.