The perception of air transport service characteristics. Differences among latent air passengers' classes

Air transport system has a fundamental role in the regional development. Good airline services contribute significantly to urban economic development of a region. Services offered by airlines are characterized by several attributes. For this reason, determining the importance given by the passengers to the various service attributes becomes fundamental. The objective of this work is investigating heterogeneity in air passengers’ preferences. We propose a methodology based on the use of Stated Choice (SC) and discrete choice models. Specifically, we calibrated a Latent Class (LC) model based on data collected through a sample survey addressed to people studying or working in an Italian university campus. Model results suggest the presence of three classes of users: a first more exigent class, mainly interested to the quantitative service characteristics such as travel times and particularly sensitive to travel cost; a second class resulting more sensitive to aspects linked to temperature and space on board and not susceptible to the travel cost; a third class that is more directed to the services on board and cabin crew and not susceptible to travel cost. These findings could be useful for planners, who should define differentiated strategies to customize and/or attract various passengers’ profiles.