A research on factors that have effect on passengers airline preferences in Turkey

Passenger's airline preferences vary according to certain criteria. These criteria are flight purpose, flight type, and demographic factors such as income level and age. In this study, it is aimed to determine the factors affecting passenger's airline preferences in Turkey. Airline preferences are divided into three as pre-flight, in-flight, and post-flight. Pre-flight factors are ticket price, booking convenience, online check-in service, flight schedule, on-time departure-arrival, fast track service, VIP-CIP Lounge service, the airline image, and frequent flyer program. In-flight factors are comfort, in-flight entertainment systems, in-flight catering, quality of in-flight catering, hygiene factors, and cabin crew courtesy. Post-flight factors are spending time of baggage claim, lost and found process, airline accessibility and rent a car service. The study was carried out in two stages. In the first stage, 243 participants were reached online with the survey technique. According to survey results, it was seen that the most important factor of airline preferences is the flight schedule. For this reason, the second stage of the study was carried out with the analytical hierarchy process. In the second stage, opinions of 15 experts were taken. According to the AHP result, it was seen that the most important factor is the ticket price.