My boyfriend, Dimitry Shornikov, without whose patience, understanding, encouragement and support I could have not completed this study. ii ABSTRACTThe airline product is a standardized product and positioning in todays highly competitive and constantly changing environment is one of the most important elements in an airline s marketing strategy. Airlines are constantly trying to apply and implement various marketing positioning strategies in order to achieve success and growth. The overall purpose of this study was to examine the positioning strategies of the four selected Middle Eastern airlines in the South African business and leisure travel environment, based on airline performance in terms of service quality attributes that are perceived as important by passengers.The results of the study will contribute towards the air transport literature by confirming the validity of grouping a large number of service quality attributes and adding value to the role players understanding of their particular airlines influence and importance of service quality for positioning. The study also addresses the need for reliable information on attributes of service quality that are perceived by South African business and leisure passenger as crucial factors impacting on the selection of their airline.A literature review as well as empirical research was conducted to achieve the purpose of this study: the former provided a demarcation of the broad concepts of service quality and positioning. These concepts were specifically linked to the airline industry, providing a clear indication of the positioning strategies used by the selected airlines as reflected through the media and the airlines websites. The literature review also helped to identify the service quality attributes that were important to passengers of different airlines. These attributes were used to determine the positioning of the selected airlines as perceived by their passengers.The positioning of airlines was graphically represented using 3D Centroid plots.The data was analyzed using factor analysis, analysis of variance and multivariate analysis of variance. Factor analysis was used to group identified attributes of service quality important to passengers of selected Middle Eastern airlines. Analysis of variance was used to test the relationships between variables, while multivariate analysis of variance was used to test the effect of variables on each other.iii Databases were not available for this study: therefore non-probability sampling methods, namely convenience and quota sampling, were used.A limitation of the study within which the data analysis occurred is that the data collected was not normally distributed. The data had to be transformed and then tested for normality. The transformed data was normally distributed.The results of the research suggest that passengers are mostly concerned with the responsiveness of the airline and reliability of service, followed by consistency in the quality of service, and are less concerned about the added efforts of th...

In Africa, the Yamoussoukro Decision (YD) to date remains the single most important air transport reform policy, the continent-wide implementation of which remains pending. This study employs the Air Liberalisation Index (ALI), developed by the Word Trade Organisation (WTO) Secretariat, to measure the impact of each of the seven quantifiable market access features of South Africa's aviation policy in Africa on air passenger traffic flows. A fixed one-way panel regression technique was applied to panel data, representing five air transport markets: intra-African, the SADC, East African, West African and North African over two time periods (2000 -2010; 2006 -2010). The results proved to be significant in three markets, intra-African, the SADC and East African and provide new insights into the relationship between air passenger traffic flows and aviation policy in the South African -intra-African and regional contexts.