Effect of Strategic Alliance on Travelers’ Airline Choice Behavior

• Main Author: 陶為寰
• Other Authors: 馮正民
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2015
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/2vthg7

碩士 === 國立交通大學 === 運輸與物流管理學系 === 103 === Whereas passenger volumes of three global airline alliances—Star Alliance, SkyTeam, and Oneworld continue to grow, passengers of member airlines of an alliance are having more choices and thus more decisions to make. It is imperative for individual airlines to understand the heterogeneous preferences of passengers facing different flight distances, brand preferences, and alliance attributes such as mileage accumulation, mileage expiration, total journey time, flight frequency, frequency of claim baggage, and various thresholds to exchange tickets with mileage. While prior studies have paid less attention to the influence of global airline alliances on passenger choice behaviors, this study aims to investigate how alliance brands and operational changes due to joining an alliance may affect passengers’ airline choice behaviors. This study first utilized structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the effect of country images of member airlines and perceived equity of familiar airlines on passengers’ evaluation about alliance products, and their subsequent effect on passengers’ attitude toward alliance products (i.e., halo effect). In addition, this study applied SEM to examine the causal relationship between alliance products, airline brand equity, and passengers’ purchase intention. Finally, a binary logit model was adopted to investigate the effect of alliance operational and brand variables on passengers’ airline choice behaviors. The results of SEM analysis showed that passengers’ perceived brand equity of familiar airlines exerted the strongest influence on airline choice behaviors. The products of airline alliances appeared to have positive influence on airline equity and purchase intention. The results of binary logit analysis showed that variables that significantly affected passengers’ airline choice behaviors included prices, mileages, total journey time, flight frequency, mileage expiration date, and functional benefits of an alliance. The derived elasticity indicated that reducing passengers’ total journey time would be the most effective strategy to increase the airline choice probability of passengers. This study also concludes that compared to short-haul travelers, long-haul travelers emphasized more on seat comfort, mileage availability, in-flight catering and entertainment, ground handling, and the service attitude of flight attendants.