An assessment of air passenger confidence a year into the COVID-19 crisis: A segmentation analysis of passengers in Norway

Abstract

The COVID-19 crisis has become the most intense and long-lasting in the history of aviation. There is already a significant literature on the immediate impact of the outbreak, as well as on speculation on the future evolution of the industry. This paper seeks to contribute to this discussion by assessing a year into the crisis the demand related aspects and passenger behavioural impacts of the pandemic. Specifically, the paper aims to identify discrete market segments of air passengers according to their shared attitudes and preferences about air travel in light of the COVID-19 crisis, as well as past behaviour and future travel intentions. To achieve this, we analyse data from a large ( n = 2096) online questionnaire survey of air passengers in Norway. The cluster analysis identifies four distinct passenger segments, with each displaying varying attitudes, behaviours, and levels of concern about air travel. One of these groups, described as the ‘ Apprehensive Elders’, were identified as having the highest level of concern about flying, and subsequently showed a sharp decline in their intention to travel in the future. Another group, termed the ‘Cautious Commuters’, showed similarly enhanced levels of concerns about flying, but maintained a high propensity to fly following the pandemic despite these concerns. Regarding possible interventions to increase confidence in flying in the future, across all segments the data shows a clear preference for more ‘traditional’ active interventions, including wearing of face masks and enforcement of physical distancing, over and above passive or technological interventions. Norway represents a valuable case as a possible signal for future policy and practice in relation to the recovery of air travel following the pandemic. The findings have important implications for air transport managers and decision makers in terms of managing the perceptions and expectations of different passenger groups as air travel begins to return.

The Effect of COVID-19 Countermeasures on Korean Air Passenger Confidence

“…The SMC values for the remaining were all above 0.40 except for face mask (0.34). The face mask factor was kept as it was the most preferred and significant measure on COVID-19 in this study as well as in other studies [1,13]. Cronbach's alpha values were above 0.70 for health measures (0.706), vaccine measures (0.892), and passenger confidence (0.941), which is acceptable according to Anderson and Gerbing [49], Taber [50], and Adadan and Savasci [51] for internal consistency.…”

“…Hypotheses 1 and 2 were set up to confirm countermeasure effectiveness on Korean air passenger confidence. It has been previously shown in different circumstances that Hypothesis 1 was partially supported, while Hypothesis 2 was fully supported [1,17]. In addition, we established Hypothesis 3 to determine the effectiveness of vaccine measures on Korean air passenger confidence to fill a gap in the literature.…”

“…Budd et al [1] studied how the countermeasures in airports and on airlines were perceived differently for Norwegian passengers. They showed that passive measures (wearing face masks, physical distancing, and cleaning of surfaces) had the greatest influence on air passenger confidence, and technological measures (touchless surface and processes, a trackand-trace system, and virtual queuing procedures) were less effective.…”

“…The global aviation market before COVID-19 has grown steadily thanks to the rapid growth of low-cost carriers (LCCs) and aggressive route expansion [1,2]. The total number of air passengers more than doubled from 2 billion in 2004 to 4.7 billion in 2019 [3].…”

The World Airport Awards as a Quality Distinctive and Marketing Tool for Airports

“…Airports as an essential tool in the strategic and marketing plans of tourist destinations [136]. Strategic alliances between airlines and airports are necessary in these times of pandemic and the progressive opening of the markets, in order to 'increases passenger confidence in flying in the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic' [137]. According to Albers et al (2005) [138] suggest that in the face of increasing competition, alliances between airports and airlines offer convenient instruments for developing a long-term competitive advantage.…”