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Heterogeneity in preferences of air travel itinerary in a low-frequency market

Rezaei, A ; Sharif University of Technology | 2011

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  1. Type of Document: Article
  2. DOI: 10.3141/2214-02
  3. Publisher: 2011
  4. Abstract:
  5. Research in the choice behavior of air travelers has evolved to include an analytical focus on variation in the sensitivities of travelers to factors influencing itinerary choice. Some choice studies have moved beyond a focus on assumed representative, mean-level sensitivities toward a goal of representing the distribution of preferences across a sample. The mixed multinomial logit model has served as a valuable means of estimating such distributions of air travel preferences, including studies of business travelers, impacts of airport level-of-service attributes, distributions of willingness-to-pay (WTP), and information-processing strategies. Does the insight gained in previous studies, focusing on preferences in mature markets with relatively high per capita rates of air travel activity, apply to markets with low frequencies of airline patronage? This study centers on a survey of travelers in Tehran, Iran, a low-frequency air travel market. The analysis incorporates tests of a full range of distributions of random parameters to determine whether the impacts of restricting distributions allow only normality and confirms the potential to improve model fit with alternative distributions. The estimated distributions of WTP measures confirm the value of accounting for preference heterogeneity in the analysis of choice of air itinerary behavior in a lowf-requency market and yield lower mean WTP values relative to analysis that omits the effects of preference heterogeneity
  6. Keywords:
  7. Air travels ; Business travelers ; Choice behaviors ; Level of service ; Low frequency ; Mature markets ; Model fit ; Multinomial logit model ; Per capita rate ; Preference heterogeneity ; Random parameters ; Tehran , Iran ; Willingness to pay ; WTP values ; Civil aviation ; Commerce ; Mathematical models ; Sensitivity analysis ; Air transportation
  8. Source: Transportation Research Record ; Issue 2214 , 2011 , Pages 10-19 ; 03611981 (ISSN)
  9. URL: http://trrjournalonline.trb.org/doi/10.3141/2214-02