Variables Impacting Passenger Airline Ticket Prices

Abstract

Air travel has undoubtedly become the fastest and perhaps the most sophisticated means of travelling. Continuous research and development is in progress to make it much safer and effective. Being the most sophisticated mean of transport, it is indeed the most expensive one as well. From the passenger's perspective, these costs are seen as the cost of airline ticket that they have to buy in order to avail air travel services. Since the expanding competition between airlines, the price of the ticket has become a crucial concern for the airlines. A number of variables are involved in the price setting process of airline tickets. Some of these variables have a direct influence, while the rest have an indirect impact on the ticket price. In this paper, the key factors that contribute, either directly or indirectly, to the price of the ticket would be discussed with an attempt to answer the following research questions.

RQ1.What are the variables that have a direct influence on the passenger airline ticket price?

RQ.2What are the variables that have an indirect influence on the passenger airline ticket price?

RQ.3What is the in-depth effect of fuel prices on the airline ticket price for passengers?

Variables Impacting Passenger Ticket Prices

Introduction

In the recent past, science and technology have evolved to a great extent. In the past, a number of tasks were considered next to impossible due to the complications associated with their completion. With the passage of time, the enhancement in technology made those tasks very simple and convenient to perform. One of such thing that has benefited a lot from the advancement in science and technology is travelling (Gillen et.al, 2004).

In ancient times, travelling was considered to be a cumbersome task. Even travelling very short distances used to be very much problematic. People had to travel for days, even months to travel from one country to another and that too with great difficulty. Such travelling was not only difficult, but dangerous as well. People used to travel on foot, or on animals like horses, camels etc. Moreover, such travelling was prone to threats such as losing the track of the correct way, i.e. going off the path, since there were no reliable means of guidance through the way.

As technology evolved, newer means of travelling were developed. The development automobiles and trains started to change the overall paradigm of travelling. Distances started to shorten up as travelling became faster. Moreover, these means of travelling were significantly safer than the previous means.

One of such means, and perhaps the most fastest and sophisticated of all is air travel. Air travel has brought about a revolution in the field of travelling and changed the scenario dramatically. The development of high-speed passenger airplanes made journeys safer, convenient, comfortable and speedy. Distances that previously took months to be travelled can be covered in hours through air travel. Being the most advanced means of travel, air travel became one of the largest and fastest growing businesses in the ...