| White
River Junction, VT � November 2001 � Resource
Systems Group has released the results of its annual mid-year U.S.
domestic air traveler survey. The project summary report, �Air Travelers
2001: What do they tell us about the future of U.S. air travel?�, provides
a detailed assessment of air traveler preferences and their ratings of
airports, airlines and ticketing. Although perceptions about security and
safety have changed since September 11, the baseline conditions measured
in this survey describe the core characteristics of the market.
Among
The Study's Findings
-
Travelers
continue to be willing to pay significantly higher fares for improved basic
service. On a typical one-way trip, business travelers will pay an additional
$40 to reduce travel times by 1 hour, $34 to eliminate a connection, $30
for a 10% improvement in on-time performance and $75 to avoid propjet aircraft.
-
The
most valued on-board features are seat width, spacing and position. Business
passengers will pay $28 more for wider seats and $24 more for additional
space between seats. The center seat has a value $40 lower than the window
and aisle seats.
-
Although
business travelers place the highest values on basic service and amenities,
non-business travelers also place significant value on these features;
they do not just shop for the lowest fares.
-
Travelers
on average are willing to pay $30 more to travel with their most preferred
airline compared to their second most preferred. For the second year in
a row, Midwest Express has the highest brand equity among travelers familiar
with that airline. AirTran, Metrojet and Frontier have the lowest brand
equity. Southwest Airlines has the highest satisfaction rating considering
service, flight convenience and fares and United Airlines has the lowest
rating among major airlines.
-
Air
passengers will pay up to $70 more to fly from their preferred home airport
compared to their third-ranked alternative. As a home airport, travelers
rated Las Vegas McCarran International, Sacramento International and Raleigh/Durham
the easiest to get to and from and Boston's Logan International the most
difficult to access. Services for resident travelers were rated best at
McCarran and Nashville International and worst at JFK International.
-
For
the first time this year, online reservations and ticketing systems were
rated higher than travel agents in all categories except in providing other
useful travel-related service.
Throughout
the system, there are opportunities to increase the flight value perceived
by passengers. Creating additional value both stimulates travel and increases
market shares for those flights that provide this value. Differences in
airport access and in-terminal services create pronounced differences in
the value that passengers assign to alternative airports. The basic service
elements of flight time, schedule, number of connections and aircraft type
all affect value. And, in-flight amenities are part of the implicit equation
that passengers use when they impute values for alternative flights.
The
values that travelers assign to these service elements have remained reasonably
stable through time. This provides a continuing opportunity for airlines,
airport operators and travel reservation services to adapt their services
in ways that reflect these values.
A
complimentary 5-page summary report and information about the more detailed
study reports and related products are provided at www.surveycafe.com.
Resource
Systems Group, Inc., (www.rsginc.com)
a leading national transportation consulting and market research company,
designed and independently funded this survey. The firm has conducted several
hundred studies for major transportation services throughout North American,
South America, Europe and Asia. Clients have included federal agencies,
state and regional agencies, transportation service providers and equipment
manufacturers. The study's author, Thomas Adler, has a PhD from MIT in
Transportation Systems, was a professor and researcher at Dartmouth College
for 10 years and has been a consultant with Resource Systems Group for
the past 15 years. His professional work focuses on advanced market research
methods and evaluation of transportation markets.
SurveyCafe.com,
a market research eVenture of Resource Systems Group, conducted the survey,
which consisted of half-hour in-depth interviews of 600 U.S. domestic air
travelers.
Contact:
Resource
Systems Group, Inc.
Thomas
Adler
(802)
295-4999
tadler@rsginc.com
www.surveycafe.com |