Airline Transportation Research Articles

The Importance of Brand Equity and Branding in Terms of Product / Service Preference and Internationalization: An Analysis of Civil Air Transportation with Marketing Strategies

In this study, by emphasizing the importance of brand equity and branding in terms of internationalization, the effects of quality brand perception and a strong brand positioning on product/service preference in civil airline transportation have been tried to be explained in line with service marketing strategies and through descriptive content analysis method. The data collected from the literature about civil air transport companies with the traditional compilation method have evaluated in detail through descriptive content analysis. According to the results obtained, it has been understood that the customer-consumer satisfaction factors to be obtained from the purchased products/services and their differences from competing businesses should be explained to customers/consumers in detail, and suggestions have been made to civil airline companies in order to be more preferred and gain customer loyalty.

Extended flexible capacity planning methodology with flight network contribution to the airline fleet assignment problem

Flexible capacity planning is crucial for the airline industry due to the high fixed cost of assets, notably aircraft ownership, and the fluctuating demand, particularly in response to external shocks like pandemics and political crises. Following the negative consequences of such events on the financial positions of almost all airline companies, there is growing interest in developing more responsive capacity planning structures for cost efficiency in the airline industry. In this study, we present a sequential two-phase methodology for flexible capacity planning and airline fleet assignment considering the factors related to fleeting strategies, passenger demand behavior, and contribution of flights in the network. The first phase of the methodology generates potential scenarios to estimate the number of flights to the destinations, based on the data and the reports provided by two prominent associations in the aviation industry, which incorporate various country-related and airline-related factors, including population, income, routes, airports, and connectivity. The second phase identifies the required number of aircraft for each type within the fleet inventory, taking into account the aircraft utilization rates associated with each scenario. The fleet assignment problem is also reformulated to employ the objective of maximizing total profit of the entire flight network by introducing network contribution and nation/region-specific limitations in this phase. A real case study from Turkey is conducted to illustrate efficiency of the proposed methodology. We also present a comparative study to highlight the impact of network contribution and how fleet size affects the outcomes. We have observed that the inclusion of the network contribution aspect and country constraints has led to a significant improvement in financial indicators and connectivity. The results show that the methodology can effectively tackle challenges in airline transportation problems.

THE INFLUENCE OF CAPITAL STRUCTURE, ASSET GROWTH AND PROFITABILITY ON STOCK PRICES IN THE TRANSPORTATION SECTOR OF AIRLINES REGISTERED ON THE IDX, 2018-2022

This research was conducted with the aim of finding out and analyzing the influence of Capital Structure, Asset Growth and Profitability on Share Prices in the Airline Transportation Sector listed on the IDX in 2018-2022. This research is quantitative research that is associative in nature. The population in this study are companies operating in airline transportation in 2018-2022. Sampling was carried out using techniques of non probability sampling or a saturated sample, namely using all sample airline companies. The data technique used in this research is Multiple Linear Regression Panel Data using Eviews 10 software. The results of this research show that partially Capital Structure (DAR) has no effect and is not significant on stock prices, Asset Growth has no effect and is not significant on stock prices, and Profitability (ROA) has a positive and significant effect on stock prices.

The Impact of Flight Attendants' Attractiveness on Perceived Service Quality: An EEG Perspective

Competition in the airline transportation sector has significantly intensified following the deregulation act in the United States. To remain competitive, airline companies have begun implementing a range of strategies. One of the strategies commonly used by airlines is to improve service quality. Service quality has been very beneficial for airline companies to maintain profitability and increase market share. To achieve this goal, airlines must investigate the factors influencing service quality and enact improvements and regulations based on these determinants. There are significant studies in the literature on the influence of service employees on service quality. However, there are only a limited number of studies on the influence of the service quality of flight attendants, who are the public face of airline operations, on service quality. This study focuses on the influence of the level of attractiveness (a nonverbal characteristic) of flight attendants on perceived service quality. This research employs a neuromarketing method, specifically the frontal asymmetry approach, using electroencephalography (EEG) techniques. In the experiment, 37 participants were recruited, including 19 males and 18 females, and frontal alpha asymmetry metric results were derived from electrode pairs. In the experiment conducted at the Faculty of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Eskisehir Technical University, participants also evaluated the influence of flight attendant attractiveness on service quality using a survey technique. The findings indicate a significant difference in frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) metrics between attractive and unattractive flight attendants. FFA metrics of attractive flight attendants were greater than those of unattractive flight attendants. Additionally, FAA metrics were found to be greater under favourable service delivery than under unfavourable service delivery. Furthermore, among the service dimensions, the reliability and responsiveness dimensions had higher FAA metrics than did the other dimensions. A study comparing EEG results with survey responses revealed a statistically significant difference. The findings indicate that flight attendants with higher levels of attractiveness enhance their motivation to approach, thereby contributing to an improvement in perceived service quality. Moreover, these findings underscore the potential of neuromarketing methods for validating outcomes from conventional research approaches. Based on these findings, airlines should develop policies that prioritize attractive attributes in the recruitment of flight attendants. In addition, implementing various programs and incentive systems to maintain the attractiveness of flight attendants is essential. Moreover, providing services with diversified flight attendant profiles tailored to different customer segments is considered crucial for customer satisfaction and experience. Future studies could achieve more comprehensive results by using diverse sample sizes and age groups along with different neuromarketing techniques. Furthermore, the findings suggest a high potential for applying the frontal alpha asymmetry approach in other marketing fields.

Sivil Havacılık Alanında Rekabet ile İlgili Hazırlanan Lisansüstü Tezlerin İçerik Analizi

With the deregulation in the civil aviation industry, competition has started to increase. Firms operating in the sector had to continue their services in a competitive environment. For this reason, scientific studies and theses have been conducted on competition for firms operating in the field of civil aviation. The aim of the research is to profile the postgraduate theses prepared in the field of civil aviation and competition in Turkey by examining them bibliometrically. All postgraduate theses prepared in the field of civil aviation and competition in the National Thesis Center were included in the research. The number of theses prepared in the field of civil aviation and competition topics was determined as 24. The content analysis method, which is one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the research. It was determined that most of the theses examined adopted the qualitative research method. When the samples of the theses were examined, Turkish Airlines for 10 theses and Pegasus for 8 theses were taken as samples. The first five frequently used keywords are competition, airlines, airline transportation, competitive strategies, and civil aviation, respectively.

Fleet Type Planning for Private Air Transport After Covid-19

The global impact of the epidemic COVID-19 has done great damage to air transport. Demand for airline transportation has declined for reasons such as quarantine practices by countries, curfews, the economic recession, and the transfer of meetings to digital platforms. This situation has also led to a change in individuals' preferences for air transport. The most striking change in air transport is the tendency of individuals to private air transport privately to minimize the health risks that may arise from personal contacts. Individuals who avoid commercial air transport where public transportation is has transitioned private air transport. For these reasons, an forecasting study was conducted in this study so that a private airline company can provide accurate flight plans in the future. For the forecast study, the number of aircraft types for 2022 was determined by obtaining data on the number of aircraft by passenger capacity, the number of flights, and the number of passengers for 2019-2021 from the airline company. In the forecasting study, the models with the highest accuracy value were selected from the machine learning models. The results provided important information about the company's future fleet planning.

Assessing the Quality of Sustainable Airline Services Utilizing the Multicriteria Decision-Making Approach

Monitoring customer satisfaction in the airline service industry is critical for improving service quality and meeting consumer expectations. Modern and comprehensive quality of service measurement tools offer firms critical information about how consumers perceive quality and their service quality expectations. It is vital to assess service quality in airline transportation, which is becoming more popular in comparison to other modes of transportation, resulting in increased competition. Businesses should know their clients well and make adjustments by properly analyzing their expectations if they want to compete in the market and enhance the quality of their services. As a consequence of this, we decided to utilize a model called the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) in order to determine how passengers in Saudi Arabia evaluate the level of service that is offered by airlines. Using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) approach to model the five SERVQUAL dimensions and 22 sub-criteria, the purpose of the study effort was to determine the criteria for improving airline services. For the purpose of the study, the service from three different airlines was chosen and assessed based on their overall quality performance. Systematically, the AHP-based approach is presented for rating the airlines according to the Saudi aviation services. According to the observations, airlines should focus more on reliability, assurance, responsiveness, and empathy and less on tangibles. The sub-criteria also state that the airlines’ top aim should be to deliver accurate services on the first try. According to the AHP analysis, Saudi Airlines ranked first, followed by flynas and then flydeal. The findings of this study have consequences for decisions about the effective monitoring of the total airline system in order to enhance the delivery of high-quality services that would increase customers’ pleasure, which is the aim of airline services.

The Mediating Role of Perceived Organizational Support in the Effect of Abusive Management and Psychological Contract Perception on Job Embeddedness in Air Transport Businesses

The study attempts to investigate how perceived organizational support mediates the relationship between perceived psychological contract, work embeddedness, and abusive management. Data for the study—which is based on the theories of social exchange and resource conservation—was gathered from Istanbul-based airlines that provide transportation services. The study's sample consisted of 294 individuals. The bootstrap approach and the structural equation model-Amos were used to test the research's hypotheses. Results showed that perceived organizational support mediates the association between perceived psychological contract and work embedding and abusive management. The results also offer a thorough evaluation of how psychological contract perception and abusive management improve job embedding through higher perceived organizational support. This study on airline workers in Turkey is significant because it is the first to address the negative effects of abusive management, the benefits of employees' psychological connections to their workplaces, and the positive effects of employees' perceptions of organizational support on their job embeddedness.

Target setting for airlines incorporating CO2 emissions: The DEA bargaining approach

Long-term sustainability in airline transportation entails mitigating the detrimental impact of CO2 emissions on the environment. However, it is also necessary that it does not affect the airlines' performance. In this regard, it is important to achieve optimal and efficient targets by inputs, good outputs, and undesirable outputs. The purpose of this study is to compute the input and output targets using the bargaining approach for a sample of major global airlines for the period 2018. This has been undertaken utilising the proposed data envelopment analysis (DEA)-based Nash bargaining model wherein its novelty lies in incorporating weakly disposable undesirable outputs. This model achieves reasonable and optimal targets for not just inputs and outputs but also for undesirable outputs by carrying out an unbiased, rational negotiation between the inputs and outputs. The results show that weakly efficient airlines attain the optimal targets by improving their environmental performance and inefficient airlines can achieve their input/output targets by carrying out an unbiased, rational negotiation between the inputs, good outputs, and bad output. The policy implications emanating from the findings have also been highlighted.

항공서비스 산업 종사자의 직무 스트레스와 직무 불안정성, 우울감 간의 영향 관계

Changes in airport and airline employment patterns were caused by the development of airline transportation and competition in the airline service industry. In an unstable employment environment, such as outsourcing and non-regular jobs, the concept of job stress, job instability, and depression must be important issues for workers who perform a high level of emotional labor. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between job stress, job instability, and depression among workers in the airline service industry who had direct contact with customers, as well as the effect of positive psychological capital as a moderating variable for prevention and treatment. An online survey of workers in the domestic airline service industry was conducted for this purpose, and 222 valid samples were obtained. Factor analysis and regression analysis were used to investigate the relationship between job stress, job instability, depression, and positive psychological capital. The study's findings are as follows. For starters, there was a statistically significant link between job stress, job insecurity, and depression. Job stress had an effect on both job insecurity and depression. Second, job insecurity had a negative impact on depression. Third, as a moderating variable, positive psychological capital was found to have an effect on job stress, job instability, and depression. This study discovered that job stress had an impact on job instability and depression among airline workers. The outcome can be used to detect job stress and improve employee mental health. Employees in the airline service industry may experience job stress, job insecurity, and depression, which can have a negative impact on corporate performance. As a result, in order to reduce workers' negative psychological status, airlines must apply the concept of positive psychological capital to manpower management.

Internet of Things Supported Airport Boarding System and Evaluation with Fuzzy

The existing systems sustained with the investments made require more automation and digital transformation with the continuous advancement of technology. The aviation industry is a sector that is open to more automation and digital transformation, mainly because of the intense competition and the analysis of a large variety of data. The long duration of operations in current airline processes and some process flows cause customer dissatisfaction and cost increase. In this study, the boarding process, which is one of the operational processes of airline transportation and is open to improvement, was discussed. The classical boarding process has been redesigned using Internet of Things technology a model called Boarding 4.0 was created. With Boarding 4.0, it is aimed to design a process where passengers can take their time before boarding more efficiently. In the study, the sub-processes of the Boarding 4.0 model, other processes that the sub-processes interact with, their activities, and data exchange passenger movements during the activities are explained in detail. Compared to the classical boarding process and Boarding 4.0 with the fuzzy ahp technique, it has been shown that boarding 4.0 is more advantageous and passenger movement times can be reduced during boarding. As a result of the evaluation made with the fuzzy ahp, it was determined that boarding 4.0 is more advantageous than the classical boarding process. In addition, when the total time of the sub-activities in the boarding process is calculated, boarding activities for a passenger take 50 min with the classic boarding process and 20 min with Boarding 4.0. Thus, when Boarding 4.0 is used, the passenger gains 30 min. Furthermore, when the calculation is made concerning the airport’s current capacity, two passengers are hosted with the classical boarding process, while five passengers are hosted with Boarding 4.0. This acquisition is significant for airports in terms of efficient use of resources.

Long-term ash dispersal dataset of the Sakurajima Taisho eruption for ashfall disaster countermeasure

Abstract. A large volcanic eruption can generate large amounts of ash which affect the socio-economic activities of surrounding areas, affecting airline transportation, socio-economics activities, and human health. Accumulated ashfall has devastating impacts on areas surrounding the volcano and in other regions, and eruption scale and weather conditions may escalate ashfall hazards to wider areas. It is crucial to discover places with a high probability of exposure to ashfall deposition. Here, as a reference for ashfall disaster countermeasures, we present a dataset containing the estimated distributions of the ashfall deposit and airborne ash concentration, obtained from a simulation of ash dispersal following a large-scale explosive volcanic eruption. We selected the Taisho (1914) eruption of the Sakurajima volcano, as our case study. This was the strongest eruption in Japan in the last century, and our study provides a baseline for a worst-case scenario. We employed one eruption scenario (OES) approach by replicating the actual event under various extended weather conditions to show how it would affect contemporary Japan. We generated an ash dispersal dataset by simulating the ash transport of the Taisho eruption scenario using a volcanic ash dispersal model and meteorological reanalysis data for 64 years (1958–2021). We explain the dataset production and provide the dataset in multiple formats for broader audiences. We examine the validity of the dataset, its limitations, and its uncertainties. Countermeasure strategies can be derived from this dataset to reduce ashfall risk. The dataset is available at the DesignSafe-CI Data Depot: https://www.designsafe-ci.org/data/browser/public/designsafe.storage.published/PRJ-2848v2 or through the following DOI: https://doi.org/10.17603/ds2-vw5f-t920 by selecting Version 2 (Rahadianto and Tatano, 2020).

Modeling and forecasting of CO2 emissions resulting from air transport with genetic algorithms: the United Kingdom case.

The increase in the air transportation density affects global warming negatively by increasing the CO2 emitted to the environment. The issue becomes even more important when the agricultural lands and drinking water resources on the flight routes are considered. This situation leads to the development of certain environmental concerns in the society and makes it necessary for the countries to forecast in the correct direction to develop some preventive strategies. To make a contribution to this issue, emission modeling and forecasts regarding emissions originating from air transportation were made in this study through genetic algorithms, a popular artificial intelligence technique. Using the flight information of 32 European countries, the degree of relationship between the number of flights and passengers and CO2 emission from air transportation was calculated. Based on the highly correlating results obtained, time series models were developed for the UK’s domestic and international airline transportation in which the highest number of flights takes place and passengers are carried. Using these models, the forecasts based on the UK’s flight numbers until 2029, the number of passengers to be transported, and air transportation–related emissions were made. Results with high correlation values ranging from 0.99 to 0.87 were obtained in the implementations.

A Comprehensive Literature Search on Crises Affecting the Aviation Industry

The aviation industry is one of the fastest and most affected industries by the developments in the world. In the study, the historical events that shape the development of civil aviation in the world and in Turkey and the events that cause the sectoral characteristics of the industry to change and develop were examined. It has been concluded that the contribution of the aviation industry to the global economy is 4.3 times higher than other business lines worldwide. For this reason, the resistances and activities of various airports from around the world to the crises were researched and suggestions were presented. The motivation of this study has been to investigate the factors affecting the aviation industry, which has such a global importance, and the managerial decisions that have allowed the industry to survive until now.

Application of robotic process automation (RPA) for supply chain management, smart transportation and logistics

Transportation is the biggest problem of each country. Each human being is associated with transportation directly or indirectly in their life. They want to reduce the pressure of transportation such as waiting for time, stress, staff management, and their work-life balance. The role of technology has also reduced these problems in transportation. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) helps in freights order routing, making reporting automated, management of freights, driver feedback, better decision making, the accuracy of inventory management can be enhanced, automated tracking can be done through which checking transport calls can be reduced, scheduling the shipment and tracking it, invoicing management, procurement management. The tools such as robotic process automation and artificial intelligence, have also given the freedom to minimize these problems. With the use of robotic process automation, various problems of transportation in airlines can also be minimized. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) can be helpful in airline transportation like departmental work packages can be created, the file can be fetched from previous systems, travelers can be notified, data can be managed, scheduling of crew can be done.

A three-level framework to evaluate airline service quality based on interval valued neutrosophic AHP considering the new dimensions

Measuring customer satisfaction in service businesses is very important in terms of both increasing service quality and meeting customer expectations. Up-to-date and comprehensive quality of service measurement techniques provide important information to the companies about the way customers perceive the quality and their service quality expectations. It is critical to measure the service quality for airline transportation, which is becoming more popular compared to other types of transportation and therefore increasing competition. In order to compete in the market and improve their service quality, companies should know their customers well and make improvements by analysing their expectations correctly. In this context, the SERVQUAL method is one of the frequently preferred and effective tools in service quality measurement. However, it is not possible to deal with the effects of radical changes such as the development and transformations of technology, events and trends under the influence of the world with the conventional SERVQUAL method. For this purpose, the traditional method consisting of five dimensions has been extended to nine dimensions by adding four more dimensions, namely Environment, Pandemic, Digital Technology and Information Systems. While it is possible to perform a more detailed service quality measurement with the proposed method, companies are provided with an effective and up-to-date tool to determine which dimensions are more important. In this study after structuring main dimensions and its inner levels hierarchically, Modified Delphi method is applied to a group of experts and the main criteria are evaluated with Best Worst Method and sub-criteria are evaluated with Interval-Valued Neutrosophic AHP method. After subjecting the criteria, whose importance are determined, to sensitivity analysis, the results obtained are evaluated in terms of airline transportation and recommendations are presented. In addition to the extended approach it proposes, this study is the most detailed research on airline service quality as far as we know.

Tourist satisfaction with American continent airports

Tourist satisfaction is very important in terms of destination loyalty as revisit and recommendation intentions. The development of airline transportation has led to an increase in the average time spent by tourists during the destination process by shortening the transportation time. The purpose of this study is to determine the spatial distribution of passenger satisfaction levels at airports in the Americas. For this purpose, data for determining tourist satisfaction has been obtained from two different platforms. In order to determine the general satisfaction level at the airports, the data of 904 airports where 30 or more users made comments were taken into consideration in the google map database. Satisfaction distribution and clustering regarding airports were evaluated with the data obtained from Google. Mapping analysis was conducted using the spatial analysis method to determine the satisfaction levels of the tourists. MapInfo 16 program was used for mapping analysis. Satisfaction levels from American airports vary between 2.5 and 4.7. In addition, whether the airport satisfaction is spatial autocorrelation has been tested using the GeoDa program. Analyzes have revealed that airport satisfaction creates spatial autocorrelation in America. It is observed that satisfaction is high in airports in the east and west of North America and low in the middle parts. Satisfaction for Central America has been found to be high in the west of the continent and low in the east. Satisfaction levels for South America are high in the northeast, northwest, and also southwest coasts, while it is low in other parts. This situation shows that airports located in certain regions of the continent have similar characteristics. Skytrax data were used to determine the variables affecting satisfaction at airports. Because there is no statistical difference between the general satisfaction values obtained from Skytrax and google platforms. In the study, the data of 58 airports, which are 30 or more evaluated in the Skytrax database, were used. Accordingly, the variables affecting general satisfaction were explained by airport cleanliness, seating capacity, and waiting times. In addition, it was determined that the independent variable that affects satisfaction the most is the waiting time in the queue. This situation shows that measures should be taken to reduce the waiting time in the queue to increase satisfaction at airports. As a result, it is important to determine tourist satisfaction, to evaluate the quality of current practices, and to identify improvement aspects. High overall satisfaction at airports will increase the likelihood of tourists to reuse these airports and recommend them to other passengers, and will positively affect destination loyalty.

The Effect of COVID-19 on Airline Transportation Services: A Study on Service Robot Usage Intention

Robots have started to be used in the service sector as well as in the manufacturing industry. The use of service robots in airport services, tourism, and hospital services also brings many advantages. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, reducing physical contact and providing hygiene are essential benefits of service robots. For this purpose, the effect of COVID-19 fear on perceived trust in service robots and the intention to use them at airports was investigated in this study. For analysis, data were collected from 730 participants from 64 different countries, by questionnaire. The data were analyzed with the SPSS and AMOS package programs. As a result of the structural equation model analysis, it was determined that COVID-19 fear affects perceived trust in service robots and the intention to use them positively, and perceived trust also affects the intention to use service robots positively. In addition, as a result of the Process Macro analysis, it was found that perceived trust has a high mediating effect on the effect of COVID-19 fear on the intention to use. The research results show that people’s attitudes towards COVID-19 shape the perception of robot usage in air transport services.

Structural and spectral properties of generative models for synthetic multilayer air transportation networks.

To understand airline transportation networks (ATN) systems we can effectively represent them as multilayer networks, where layers capture different airline companies, the nodes correspond to the airports and the edges to the routes between the airports. We focus our study on the importance of leveraging synthetic generative multilayer models to support the analysis of meaningful patterns in these routes, capturing an ATN’s evolution with an emphasis on measuring its resilience to random or targeted attacks and considering deliberate locations of airports. By resorting to the European ATN and the United States ATN as exemplary references, in this work, we provide a systematic analysis of major existing synthetic generation models for ATNs, specifically ANGEL, STARGEN and BINBALL. Besides a thorough study of the topological aspects of the ATNs created by the three models, our major contribution lays on an unprecedented investigation of their spectral characteristics based on Random Matrix Theory and on their resilience analysis based on both site and bond percolation approaches. Results have shown that ANGEL outperforms STARGEN and BINBALL to better capture the complexity of real-world ATNs by featuring the unique properties of building a multiplex ATN layer by layer and of replicating layers with point-to-point structures alongside hub-spoke formations.

The Effect of Job Insecurity, Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment on Employee Turnover Intention Mediated by Organizational Culture: Study on The Airline Transportation Services in Indonesia

The purpose of this study is to analyze Job Insecurity, job satisfaction, and organizational Commitment directly affect turnover intention and organizational culture; it analyzes Job Insecurity, job satisfaction, and organizational Commitment have an indirect impact on turnover intention through organizational culture. The population of this study was employees of The Airline Transportation Services Company, with 300 samples taken as research subjects. The analysis method uses Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) through AMOS software version 2.2. The results showed that Job Insecurity, job satisfaction, and organizational culture had a significant effect on turnover intention, work commitment had no significant impact on turnover intention, Job Insecurity, job satisfaction, and Commitment had a considerable influence on organizational culture, and organizational culture was able to mediate the effect of Job Insecurity, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Work has a significant impact on turnover intention.