Data Analytics for Air Travel Data: A Survey and New Perspectives

From the start, the airline industry has remarkably connected countries all over the world through rapid long-distance transportation, helping people overcome geographic barriers. Consequently, this has ushered in substantial economic growth, both nationally and internationally. The airline industry produces vast amounts of data, capturing a diverse set of information about their operations, including data related to passengers, freight, flights, and much more. Analyzing air travel data can advance the understanding of airline market dynamics, allowing companies to provide customized, efficient, and safe transportation services. Due to big data challenges in such a complex environment, the benefits of drawing insights from the air travel data in the airline industry have not yet been fully explored. This article aims to survey various components and corresponding proposed data analysis methodologies that have been identified as essential to the inner workings of the airline industry. We introduce existing data sources commonly used in the papers surveyed and summarize their availability. Finally, we discuss several potential research directions to better harness airline data in the future. We anticipate this study to be used as a comprehensive reference for both members of the airline industry and academic scholars with an interest in airline research.

The Effects of Passenger Risk Perception During the COVID-19 Pandemic on Airline Industry: Evidence From the United States Stock Market

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a dramatic reshaping of passenger risk perception for airline industry. The sharp increase in risk aversion by air passenger has caused a disastrous impact on the tourism service industry, particularly airline industry. Although the existing literature has provided a lot of studies on the impact of the pandemic on travel industry, there are very few studies discussing the impact of change in passenger risk perception on the stock market performance of airline industry. This study considers two types of airline companies, full-service and low-cost. In order to overcome the traditional problem of the Chow test, Quandt–Andrews test is used to identify structural change points during the pandemic in the stock prices of United States airline companies. The result shows that an industry-wide structural change in the stock market performance indeed is found to take place during the pandemic for United States airline companies. Meanwhile, no significant difference is found in the structural change date between the two types of airline companies. The selected airline companies are found to be clustered toward the end of 2020 (November and December) in their structural change dates. Although the strike of the COVID-19 pandemic on airline industry has proven to be widespread and profound, our investigation implies that air passengers have gradually adapted to the new normal of travel activities at some level and partly rebuild their sense of safety under the strict epidemic-control measures.

Framework to Understand and Deploy AI-Based Smart CRM in the Airline Industry

This is the age of AI. Soon what customers think will be understood by the smart applications on their mobile devices and the information—most of which will be pre-processed based on the customer personas—will be available at the blink of an eye. In this chapter a critical analysis of how AI bolsters CRM capabilities in the airline industry is conducted. To understand that, AI capabilities are surveyed and its transformational effects on CRM and its impact on customer acquisition, retention, loyalty, and experience are explored in depth. In the end, a customer journey-based deployment framework is presented that supports the finding of the AI-CRM implementation use cases.

Airport Efficiency Analysis in Europe Including User Satisfaction: A Non-Parametric Analysis with DEA Approach

In recent years, the air transport sector has played a significant role in the economy of the areas served. The demand for air travel has doubled every fifteen years and has grown faster with respect to other industries. This is also due to the introduction of low-cost airlines (LCA). In the coming decades, more efficient management of airports will become an essential aspect to address. A clear understanding of the current airport structure based on the analysis of the operational efficiency will therefore be necessary. All air carriers seek to expand their operations at airports, which tend to operate efficiently in order to reduce costs. However, in carrying out their activities and maximizing operational efficiency, airports should simultaneously manage to increase their passengers’ satisfaction. All over the world, passengers are demanding higher levels of service and regulators are paying increasing attention to the provision of airport services and the quality of the services supplied. Starting from these considerations, the aim of this paper is to study the efficiency of an airport through joint analysis of the operational efficiency (with the Data Envelopment Analysis -DEA-model) for the airport manager (by maximizing the exploitation of existing infrastructures), taking into consideration the quality of airport services as perceived by the user. The original and added value of this work lies in the quantitative analysis of the main characteristics that determine the efficiency of main European airports, also taking into account the quality perceived by the users during their trips with the air mode. Thus, the efficiency of 103 European airports in 37 different countries, for the year 2018, were compared, highlighting the effect of low-cost airlines. This aspect, as far as the authors know, has not been treated in the literature. Indeed, this study represents a decision support system (DSS) tool for operational managers in the air sector for the identification of the characteristics that improve airport efficiency. This paper refers to the pre-COVID-19 period because it would not be useful to make an efficiency analysis influenced by the pandemic, since the latter represents a specific event. Therefore, this analysis provides interesting inputs for both researchers and practitioners to manage the issue of efficiency in ordinary contexts. Moreover, the airline industry is characterized by cut-throat competition, and it may be very useful in the close future to examine this issue to improve firms’ management in the industry.

SITUATION OF EUROPEAN AIRLINES CAUSED BY COVID-19: RESTRICTIONS, GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIES AND FUTURE PROSPECTS

The COVID-19 pandemic has been an unprecedented crisis, severely affecting the economy and many sectors, including the airline industry. This paper reviews this situation to see how airlines have acted since the beginning of COVID-19. The airline industry is dependent on financial support and subsidies to cope with the massive drop in air travel due to the coronavirus. The support received by the major airlines has been examined. In addition, a comparison has been made of all the aviation restrictions that have been implemented by different European governments. Travellers from countries with a higher incidence of cases, or with a growing rate of cases, have the most restrictions on travel to other countries. Furthermore, the strategies and protocols being implemented by certain airlines following the lifting of some of the restrictions on passenger air traffic are analysed. This paper will provide an insight into how airlines are coping with this unfavourable environment, as well as some of the future prospects and strategies of the aviation sector.

The Time Has Come, the Walrus Said, to Talk of Many Things: Wheelchair Securement Spaces on Commercial Airlines

Air travel poses special problems for people who use wheelchairs either periodically or consistently (wheelchair users). The wheelchair is, to some extent, an extension of the wheelchair user’s bodily autonomy. Personal dignity would be enhanced, and injury and discomfort would be reduced, if a traveling wheelchair user were allowed to remain in his or her own wheelchair for the duration of the flight. Although no law or regulation currently requires that option, groundwork has been laid in both case law and statutes that could lead to such a result. To be sure, safety and cost are paramount issues and must be adequately addressed. Some technological concerns have already been resolved and others are the subject of promising developments. Lobbyist groups are actively campaigning and, as a result, some airlines have shown interest in the proposal. The goal of in-cabin use of personal wheelchairs is achievable, but the process is likely to be incremental. During this period of COVID-19 pandemic-related disruption in the airline industry, both mainline and regional carriers should benefit from the Schumpeterian notion of creative destruction resulting in technical and business innovations. The catalyst needed to move the research and development process along at a faster pace might be a contest with some sort of reward such as has been used to foster other aeronautical innovations.