Passenger airline choice behavior for domestic short-haul travel in South Korea

Abstract

When the Seoul-Busan line of South Korea's high-speed rail system, dubbed the Korea Train Express (KTX), entered service in November 2010, it was expected that this line would compete with air transport services for short-haul domestic journeys. Therefore this is a study about passengers' choice behavior when traveling short-haul domestic routes in South Korea. It utilizes MNL and NL logit models with selected variables, and the data required for the analyses were gathered through Stated Preference (SP) Techniques. The main SP survey was conducted for three weeks at departure lounges in Incheon International Airport in May 2012. The results reveal that fare, access time and journey time are significantly important with respect to passenger choice. The results further indicate that business travelers are more willing to pay than non-business travelers to reduce access and journey time. It is also noteworthy that reducing access time is more important than reducing journey time for short-haul domestic travelers. The conclusion is that it is significantly important for airline planners or local authorities that want to increase their local market share to invest in relatively fast access modes.