Chinese Airline Research Articles

A privacy-preserving federated learning approach for airline upgrade optimization

PurposeA key issue of making upgrade decisions is to match the most relevant upgrade offers to the right customers at the right time. To optimize upgrade strategies and profitability, companies seek to break “data silos” between themselves and other business partners for a more holistic view of customers' consumption experiences. However, multi-source data fusion may lead to potential privacy leakage. To overcome these two challenges in data silos and privacy protection, this study introduced a privacy-preserving federated learning (FL) approach and explained the process of using FL in modeling airline passengers’ willingness to pay for upgrade offers. Design/methodology/approachFederated learning is a new confidential computing technique that allows companies to train a model cooperatively by exchanging model parameters instead of the actual raw data, which might include customers' privacy sensitive information. Using a case study of a Chinese airline company, this study demonstrated how FL-based upgrade models using multi-source data can be developed to improve the accuracy of predicting customers' willingness to pay for upgrades while preserving customers’ personal data privacy. FindingsComparing with traditional unilateral model using single-source data, the federated logistic regression and SecureBoost models demonstrate better model performance. This indicates that the proposed FL approach can enhance the accuracy of modeling airline passengers' willingness to pay for upgrade offers while preserving passengers’ data privacy. The findings also show that the FL-based models generally took longer running time than the traditional unilateral model due to the design of FL approach in ensuring data privacy. OriginalityThis study contributes to the literature of upgrade optimization by introducing the new FL approach for developing machining learning models to predict customers’ reaction to upgrade offers. Although we focus on the airline industry in our case study, the proposed FL approach can be applied to other industries with a similar issue of upgrade optimization such as hotels or cruise lines, and car rental.

The Efficiency Evaluation of DEA Model Incorporating Improved Possibility Theory

The data envelopment analysis (DEA) models have been widely recognized and applied in various fields. However, these models have limitations, such as their inability to globally rank DMUs, the efficiency values are definite numerical values, they are unable to reflect potential efficiency changes, and they fail to adequately reflect the degree of the decision maker’s preference. In order to address these shortcomings, this paper combines possibility theory with self-interest and non-self-interest principles to improve the DEA model to provide a more detailed reflection of the differences between DMUs. First, the self-interest and non-self-interest principles are employed to establish the DEA evaluation model, and the determined numerical efficiency is transformed into efficiency intervals. Second, an attitude function is added to the common possible-degree formula to reflect the decision maker’s preference, and a more reasonable method for solving the attitude function is presented. Finally, the improved possible-degree formula proposed in this paper is used to rank and compare the interval efficiencies. This improved method not only provides more comprehensive ranking information but also better captures the decision maker’s preferences. This model takes preference issues into account and has improved stability and accuracy compared with existing models. The application of the improved model in airlines shows that the model proposed in this paper effectively achieved a full ranking. From a developmental perspective, the efficiency levels of Chinese airlines were generally comparable. Joyair and One Two Three performed poorly, exhibiting significant gaps compared with other airlines.

Dynamics in the Impact of Entrepreneurship Orientation on Corporate the Moderating Role of Environmental Performance

This study examines the impact of environmental dynamics on the relationship between Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) and corporate performance in the Malaysian aviation industry, specifically investigating the mediating effect of environmental performance. The focus is on the influence of technological advancement, economic policy reorientation, and political and security stability on EO, as documented by Hina et al. (2020) and Haider et al. (2017), in relation to business performance. Additionally, the study explores the effect of environmental dynamism on this relationship. A quantitative approach was adopted, collecting data from 100 staff members of three selected Chinese airlines. The findings show a high correlation between EO and variables such as technological innovations, economic policy reforms, political stability, and security. It is confirmed that environmental changes positively influence the relationship between EO and business performance. The results suggest that companies with a higher level of EO are more competent in managing technology, adjusting economic policies, and thriving in politically and security-stable environments. This study offers valuable insights for strategic decision-making in the aviation industry, emphasizing the importance of fostering entrepreneurial behaviour and adaptive capacities to enhance organizational performance within dynamic business environments.

Impact of airline social media marketing on purchase intention:Evidence from China using PLS-SEM

Social media has emerged as a pivotal marketing instrument and a platform that facilitates connections between consumers and businesses. In the intense market competition among peer airlines and high-speed rail services, the effective and efficient use of social media can provide a competitive edge for airlines in China. This paper constructs a partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) and examines the impact of the perceived ease of use of the social media platform, perceived usefulness of information, and marketing strategies on customer perceived value and purchase intention for Chinese airlines using multigroup analysis. The results suggest that social media marketing can positively influence on customers’ purchase intention, and perceived value plays a mediating role between social media marketing and customers’ purchase intention. Perceived usefulness of information is the most important factor contributing to the perceived value of airline products while marketing strategy is the most significant factor that can increase purchase intention. The research indicates a clear need to tailor marketing strategies for passengers based on factors such as gender, income, social media usage, and travel frequency.

Influence of Air Travelers’ Willingness to Pay for Carbon Offset Based on Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling

With air passengers as research objects, this study adopted partial least squares structural equation modeling method to build a model and analyzed passengers’ willingness to purchase carbon offsets and its influencing factors. According to the results, the effects of factors such as carbon environment, travel environment, and participation motivation are significantly positive on air passengers’ attitudes toward emission reduction. As a mediating variable, emission reduction attitude has a significant and positive influence on air passengers’ willingness to purchase carbon offsets. Psychological variables have a notable influence on individuals’ willingness to pay for carbon offsets. Besides, socio-economic attributes do not have any significant influence on passengers’ willingness to pay. To build a sustainable and voluntary carbon offset mechanism in the aviation industry, we need to raise air passengers’ low-carbon awareness by launching various carbon offset programs, and expand air passengers’ knowledge about carbon emissions. This study provides valuable insights into the pricing strategy of Chinese airlines.

Personality traits changes in the training process of Chinese airline transport pilots

OBJECTIVE: To study the personality changes of Chinese airline transport pilots in the training process from cadets to captains. METHODS: In This paper, we used the Cattell 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) to track and record the personality traits of 200 students majoring in flight technology and 200 “college graduates to pilot” in five different periods from the beginning of aviation theory training to becoming captains. RESULTS: Before the aviation theory training, for the 16 factors of 16PF, there was a significant difference in 11 factors (including Warmth (A), Reasoning (B), etc.) between the students majoring in flight technology and “college graduates to pilot” (p< 0.05). After the completion of theory training, there were only four factors (Sensitivity (I), Openness to Change (Q1), Self Reliance (Q2) and Perfectionism (Q3) (p< 0.05) between the students majoring in flight technology and “college graduates to pilot”, then after the flight training, there is no significant difference between them. When they became captains, compared with when they were flying cadets, 13 factors of students majoring in flight technology and 7 factors of “college graduates to pilot” had changed significantly. From the perspective of the growth of flying cadets, in the process of becoming a captain, there are three stages that have a great influence on the personality of the participants. The first stage is the university study. The second stage is the flight training, and the third stage is the copilot growing into a captain. CONCLUSION: During the process of a pilot growing from a cadet to a captain, his or her personality is constantly developing and changing, and on the whole, develops towards a personality direction conducive to flight safety. In particular, when a copilot grows into a captain, the personality traits of a qualified airline pilot, including Emotional Stablity (C), Rule-Consciousness (G), Social Boldness (H), Privateness (N), Self-Reliance (Q2), etc., have been greatly strengthened at this stage.

Building interpersonal closeness in complaint responses in customer service

Positioned in interpersonal pragmatics, this article examines the role of building interpersonal closeness in complaint responses in telephone interactions. Based on four extracts drawn from the data of about two hours of 15 recordings of telephone interactions between customers and the customer service agents of one Chinese airline, it reveals that the agents mainly employ six types of strategies as ways of building interpersonal closeness: alignment, compliment, affiliation, solidarity, self-disclosure and empathy. The use of these strategies, very often in combination, is intended to create and/or enhance interpersonal closeness in behavioural, affective and cognitive dimensions to facilitate complaint settlement. The findings shed light on the improvement of customer service in a more and more digitalised world.

Comparative Study on Flight Training of Chinese Airline Pilots at Home and Abroad

Abstract The study aimed to analyze flight training methods for Chinese airline pilots, comparing domestic and foreign approaches while assessing their respective advantages and disadvantages. Various aspects including language, culture, airspace, flight support, teaching methods, training standards, and costs were examined. Additionally, a quantitative analysis was conducted on theory and practical exam results, as well as the personality development of cadets from both training backgrounds. Results revealed that foreign flight training offered several benefits over domestic training, such as shorter duration and lower costs due to airspace accessibility. Cadets undergoing foreign training demonstrated higher average scores and passing rates in Instrument Rating and Commercial License Examinations compared to domestically trained counterparts. Furthermore, foreign training positively influenced cadets’ personality development. In conclusion, foreign flight training demonstrated significant advantages in terms of overall cost-effectiveness, training quality, and cadet professionalism. However, domestic training also had its merits. Thus, the authors recommended a comprehensive evaluation to determine the most suitable training approach for individual cadets.

Product line competition: An empirical analysis of the Chinese airline industry

Consumer heterogeneity drives airlines to compete through product lines in the form of different flights and ticket policies (e.g., change fee) on the same flight. Using ticket-level data from a major Chinese online provider of travel services, we explore airlines' choices of product lines, as well as the resulting prices and price dispersion. We introduce a flight-level competition measure and find it more effective than typical route-level competition measures such as Herfindahl–Hirschman index (HHI) in predicting airlines' product line and pricing decisions. We leverage our disaggregated data to measure a carrier's price dispersion at the flight, route, and day level, respectively. For each level, we also decompose the overall price dispersion into a within-group component and a between-group component, respectively. Our results suggest that the effects of competition on price dispersion depend on the level it is measured at as well as the components. Ticket policies in our data are direct measures of quality, and we use this measure to study quality provision and dispersion.

Optimizing aircrew recovery considering long connections: A column generation based approach

Severe weather and air traffic flow control can often cause flight delays and disrupt the crew schedules, resulting in a too-short or a too-long connection between flights. Short connections need to be adjusted to ensure the airline’s smooth operations, while the long connection whose duration is only a bit lower than the threshold enabling the crew to leave the flying zone for a rest at airport terminals can be quite inefficient, as the crew’s ground standby is viewed as working all the time without executing any flight which adds to the shortage of crew resources. Thus, we propose a method of delaying flights to the point enabling crews to leave for a rest, which helps save the available working hours. The difficulty lies in the trade-off between the additional swap or delay cost in creating long connections and the possible global cost decrease due to savings in available working hours brought by long connections, which calls for optimization. In this paper, we introduce the crew recovery problem for one day of operation taking long connections into account. The problem is mathematically formulated as an arc-based integer programming model and a set partitioning model in order to determine the optimal flight recovery schedule and the crew reassignment. A column generation based solution approach is developed and the sub-problems consisting of the resource-constrained shortest path problem are solved by a labeling algorithm. Computational experiments based on real-world data from a major Chinese airline confirm the effectiveness and efficiency of the solution approaches. It is also demonstrated the save of available working hours resulting from adaptively creating long connections would decrease the recovery cost by about 18.87%–74.88%.

Association of age and night flight duration with sleep disorders among Chinese airline pilots.

Night flights might aggravate sleep disorders among aging airline pilots, posing a threat to flight safety. In this study, we assess the prevalence of sleep disorders as well as the combined effects of night flight duration and aging on sleep disorders. A cross-sectional study was conducted between July and December, 2021. Participants were recruited from a commercial airline. Sleep disorders were evaluated using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). The interaction effect of night flight duration and age on sleep disorders and their correlates were examined using logistic regression models. In total, 1,208 male airline pilots were included in the study, with a median age of 34 (interquartile range [IQR]: 29-39) years. The overall prevalence of sleep disorders was 42.6%. The multivariate logistic regression identified an interaction between night flight duration and age on sleep disorders (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] of the interaction term was 5.85 95% CI: 2.23-15.34 for age ≥ 45 years; 1.96 95% CI:1.01-3.81 for the age group 30-44 years). Longer night flight duration (aOR: 4.55; 95%CI: 1.82-11.38) and body mass index (BMI) ≥28.0 kg/m2 (aOR: 0.16; 95% CI: 0.03-0.91) were significantly associated with sleep disorders in participants aged ≥45 years. Hyperuricemia (aOR: 1.54; 95% CI: 1.09-2.16) and regular exercise (aOR: 0.23; 95% CI: 0.08-0.70) were significantly associated with sleep disorders in the 30-44 years age group. The mean monthly night flight duration and aging had a synergistic effect on airline pilots' sleep disorders, implying an aging and work-related mechanistic pathogenesis of sleep disorders in airline pilots that requires additional exploration and intervention.

Analyzing the Financial Risks and Investment Values of Chinese Airline Companies

This paper aims to examine the financial risks faced by Chinese airline companies and provide useful information to investors who are interested in investing in these firms. The study will conduct valuations on the three largest airline companies in China, namely China Southern Airlines, Air China, and China Eastern Airlines, and assess the differences in the financial risks taken by these companies. The methodology used will be the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and the metric of beta, which is used to assess the volatility of a stock or portfolio compared to the entire market. The paper provides a literature review of related research on the use of beta, risk factor models, and other financial measures to evaluate the performance and risk profile of firms in various industries. The study aims to contribute to the existing knowledge of the financial risks of airline companies and their potential impact on investor decisions.

The influence of safety-specific transformational leadership on safety behavior among Chinese airline pilots: The role of harmonious safety passion and organizational identification

Safety is a key consideration in the worldwide civil aviation industry, in which an increasing number of aviation accidents are related to flight crew performance. Based on social exchange theory and social identity theory, the primary objective of this study is to examine the relationships among safety-specific transformational leadership, harmonious safety passion, organizational identification, and safety behavior among Chinese airline pilots. Data was collected from 332 commercial airline pilots from China Eastern Airlines Co., Ltd. using self-report questionnaires. Correlation analysis, mediation analysis and moderated analysis were conducted. The results show that safety-specific transformational leadership has a positive effect on safety behavior and an indirect effect on safety behavior through the influence of harmonious safety passion. Harmonious safety passion acts as a mediating role, whereas organizational identification acts as a moderating role in the relationship between safety-specific transformational leadership and safety behavior. The managerial implications stemming from the findings of this study may promote pilots’ safety behavior, improve airline management and maintain safety of flight operation.

Reassigning Departure Slots with Preferences of the Airline and Passengers

The recovery of a departure flight is an important part of airline disruption management. The commonly used optimization objectives for assessing airport slot-scheduling efficiency are delay cost and delay time. However, the current literature does not consider the preferences of airlines and passengers in the recovery process simultaneously. The objective of this paper is to focus on the departure slot reassignment problem and develop a bi-objective optimization model. We introduce a metric for the price of fairness and formulate the airport slot scheduling problem as a bi-objective optimization model that considers the trade-off between the total airline delay cost and total passenger delay time. To quantify the trade-off between total airline delay costs and total passenger delay time, we apply the metric of the price of fairness in the bi-objective model, treating the total airline delay cost as an efficiency metric and the total passenger delay time as a fairness metric, calculating the price of fairness for each Pareto solution. An adaptive non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II based on dominant strengths (ANSGA2-DS) is developed to solve this problem. More precisely, three improved operations are presented: the improved fast dominant strength sorting method, new crowding distance improvement, and an adaptive elitist retention strategy. Three scenarios derived from a Chinese airline’s operation data are applied to the proposed bi-objective model and algorithm. The experimental findings demonstrate that the proposed model and method can effectively and efficiently address the problem. This may provide a basis for airline operation controllers to achieve a generally acceptable solution.

Estimating travellers’ value when purchasing auxiliary services in the airline industry based on the RFM model

The recency/frequency/monetary value (RFM) segmentation framework remains a mainstay in the retailing industry to quantify consumer values. However, the RFM model does not consider the added value travelers ascribe to auxiliary services. We extend the RFM framework to an RFM-P model by considering the likelihood of purchasing ancillary services during travel (P). We proposed four traveler groups based on the RFM-P model using unique sales data provided by Chinese airline. The four customer groups were compared through the lens of personal and scenario characteristics to estimate travelers’ purchasing behaviours in airlines. The results help managers make market decisions and fill gaps left by consumer value theory and the RFM model in the retailing industry.

Corporate social responsibility in China's airline industry: A longitudinal content analysis of related reports

As China has become the world's largest consumer market and leading exporter, researchers and practitioners urgently need to understand how corporate social responsibility (CSR) is socially constructed in the Chinese context, especially for international industries such as the airline sector. Building upon the triple bottom line model, this study offers a contextualized and dynamic understanding of Chinese airline CSR. Content analysis was performed to analyze 74 aggregate CSR reports (2007–2020) issued by different types of Chinese airlines. The findings reveal that in addition to the economic, social, and environmental responsibilities that are commonly seen in the West, Chinese airlines assume unique political responsibilities. This political dimension of CSR in China has become increasingly obvious in recent years. Driven by factors such as international pressure, industry competition, and more importantly, national policies, the focus of Chinese airline companies' CSR reporting has been changing over time. However, it has maintained a high level of content completeness over the years, and the social dimension of CSR has always been the aspect of greatest concern. This study contributes to the airline CSR literature by considering the particularity of airline companies and Chinese contextual factors and augmenting political CSR as a critical component of CSR in the Chinese context. Managerial implications are provided for international enterprises to cater more appropriately to the Chinese market and achieve cooperation with Chinese enterprises by implementing CSR strategies.

Multiple scaling law in networks with dynamic spatial constraint

We study a network model where the spatial constraint evolves with the network growth and demonstrate that the dynamic constraint can generally cause a non-stationary multiple scaling law in degree distribution. In specific, we show that the different power-law segments emerge successively during the network evolution, from a single power law at the beginning to a double one and to more scaling laws due to the particular model setting. Our findings indicate a plausible geometric origin of the double power-law distribution and predict the non-stationary nature accompanied by its emergence, both of which are supported by our empirical study on the Chinese airline network.

Research on Airline Strategy under COVID-19: Flight Pricing and Human Resources Perspectives

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a global recession in the economy. People travel less due to stricter restrictions set by governments worldwide and fewer business activities due to the spread of the disease. This means that the airlines will receive a sharp decrease in income, which is a disaster for them because the cost is inelastic. To help change the situation of the airlines, this paper presents a calibration method based on the data of Chinese airlines and international flight data. The proposed method contains three parts: long-term price strategy, including pricing setting for domestic and international flights; new ways of price discrimination and pricing differences pushing up the demands, the new policies for the flight attendants, including wearing masks and introducing policies to prevent the virus from spreading. The experimental method’s result shows that COVID-19’s impact on airlines can be significantly improved with an accurate way to regain customers’ trust and willingness to travel by air compared to the pre-COVID method of working.

Can family-work conflict influence safety behavior in airline pilots? The mediating role of fatigue and the moderating role of extraversion

Airline pilot safety behavior is vital to inflight safety. Drawing upon the conservation of resources theory, this study examined whether family-work conflict (FWC) would influence airline pilot safety behavior, whether fatigue would mediate the link between FWC and safety behavior, and whether extraversion would play a moderating role in the relationships. Data were obtained by investigating a sample of 331 civil pilots and their supervisors from two Chinese airlines. The results showed that FWC negatively affected safety behavior (including safety compliance and safety participation), and fatigue played a mediating role in these relationships. Furthermore, the findings suggested that higher levels of extraversion mitigated the effect of FWC on fatigue, as well as the effect of FWC on safety compliance and safety participation. These findings demonstrated a deep understanding of the mechanisms by which FWC influences pilots’ safety behavior and contributed to occupational safety literature. Theoretical and practical implications, limitations, and future research directions are provided and discussed.

Product Line Competition: An Empirical Analysis of the Chinese Airline Industry

Product Line Competition: An Empirical Analysis of the Chinese Airline Industry