Analysis of consumer decision-making on the use of different airline ticketing channels

The airline industry is as old as the new age of technology. Commercial travel began as early as 1914, but reservations technology was introduced by American Airlines in the 1960s with the advent of Sabre, a global distribution system (GDS). As the years pass, numerous new methods of ticket sales have been introduced, including OTAs, IBE, and Mobile apps. This thesis will investigate, through a survey, how different demographics choose to book their flights and the reasons behind their decisions. It will use multiple hypotheses that will interpret the survey results and pick the most significant factors that contribute to the consumers' decision using analysis tools such as IBM SPSS, accordingly, in this thesis recommendations will be made to the airlines on how to push the consumers to use their online channels rather than the old methods of booking through an agency. This research confirms that perceived usefulness, social risk, and payment flexibility are the top influential factors affecting consumers' decisions to purchase airline tickets online. Specifically, the perception that online booking is helpful, efficient, and timesaving significantly increases consumers' intent to use such platforms.