Proposal for Joint ResearchProposal for Joint Research

ANNUAL AIRLINE ANNUAL AIRLINE PASSENGER SURVEYPASSENGER SURVEY

John BeechJohn Beech

Background:

Airtours (now MyTravel)Survey in 2001

What elements of service could be dropped without upsetting

passengers?

Competition?

UK International Air Passenger Survey (National Statistics office)

“Data from the survey are used:in compiling the travel account of the balance of

payments; in estimating the numbers and characteristics of

migrants into and out of the UK; and to provide information on international tourism. ”

Not designed to assess service quality

Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) annual air passenger survey

Concerned with - traffic flows- pre and post flight travel- economic circumstances of travellers

Designed to aid Planning

Not designed to assess service quality

USA

Various academic and commercial sourcesTend not to be other than one-off

Skytrack – online surveyOpen-ended

The World’s Favourite Airline??

The Gap in the Market

• Independent

• Academically rigorous

• Authoritative

• Repeated regularly

• Available-for-purchase data

Operational issues

Cannot do in-flight surveysCannot do at-airport surveysCan do:

In-street surveysPostal self-administered questionnairesPhone surveysAt-home surveys

We must be consistent

Selling

Substantial executive summaries (but more of interest to academics and students since data will be generalised)

Full data sets

Sponsored questions (data only available to sponsor)

Roles

1. Surveying

2. Administration and co-ordination

3. Data-processing

4. Printing and publishing

Costs

1. Administration and co-ordination

2. Surveying

3. Data-processing

4. Printing and publishing

Revenue distribution

15% top-slice by ATLAS

Equal distribution of remaining 85% between SIG participants

Marketing

Targets:European regional carriersEuropean flag carriersEuropean local carriers

Routes to market:Direct mailingTrade bodies (e.g. European Regions Airline

Association)Press releases to aviation press

Next stages

• Identify which SIG members’ institutions want to participate

• Establish a scientific committee to develop the survey instrument

• Formalise arrangements with and through ATLAS