published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

This thesis addresses problems of optimization and estimation encountered in the process of airline yield management, also called airline seat inventory control. Optimality conditions are given for the problem of setting booking limits for multiple, stochastically independent demand classes that are booked in a nested fashion into a fixed pool of airline seats. These optimality conditions are compared with the approximations given by the EMSR method. Additional conditions are given for two stochastically dependent fare classes, and extensions are made that allow for incorporation of passenger goodwill and upgrades of passengers between fare classes. The model developed for the dependent demand case is also applied to the problem of determining an optimal overbooking limit in a single fare class. Finally, a methodology is developed for using multivariate multiple regression in conjunction with the EM method to estimate the parameters of demand distributions on the basis of historical demand data that have been censored by the presence of booking limits. / Business, Sauder School of / Operations and Logistics (OPLOG), Division of / Graduate

published_or_final_version / abstract / Transport Policy and Planning / Master / Master of Arts in Transport Policy and Planning

Thesis (Ph.D)--Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010. / Committee Chair: Garrow, Laurie; Committee Co-Chair: Castillo, Marco; Committee Co-Chair: Goldsman, David; Committee Member: Griffin, Paul; Committee Member: White, Chelsea (Chip). Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

The ticket distribution industry is changing rapidly. The traditional travel distribution chain comprised airlines, travel agents, and computer reservation systems (CRSs). With the current migration of travel distribution to the Internet, the way in which these actors interact has been radically altered. / After deregulation, the airlines' dependence on travel agents and CRSs led to high commission and booking fees respectively. The Internet now offers airlines a means to directly distribute their product to the travelling public with minimal expense. The airlines are eagerly shifting as many of their distribution activities as possible to different forms of web-based distribution, hoping to bypass both travel agents and CRSs. This has allowed them to reduce the commission fees they pay to travel agents. Travel agents too are going online, competing vigorously with the airlines. The combined effect of these (r)evolutions has put the airlines firmly in charge of their own distribution system. / Any such a fundamental change in a sector of industry is bound to raise anticompetitive concerns, especially for those who stand to lose the most. These concerns are at the centre of this thesis. After their examination and evaluation, I conclude that anticompetitive concerns do indeed exist and that the regulatory or antitrust authorities have the unenviable task of preserving competition, not competitors, in a new and rapidly evolving market.

No description available.

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

No description available.

Recognised as an excellent tool for competition in the current liberalised framework of international air transport, code-sharing is becoming a common practice, as an integral part of the activity of an airline, with obvious implications for both airlines and passengers. / This thesis presents two predominant legal implications of such a practice, involving two carriers for a single flight: the contracting carrier and the operating carrier. / First, this study aims at examining the relationship between users/passengers and code-share partners, more particularly identifying the practice as misleading due to the non-disclosure of the actual operator of the flight, which is magnified by the inaccuracy and shortcomings of computerised reservation systems (CRS). The regulatory framework in this regard is described and the legal obligation to disclose the identity of the actual carrier is given top priority. The delimitation of operational responsibilities will also be addressed (inadmissible passengers, overbooking and baggage concerns). The private agreement between the code-share partners will be given importance in ascertaining the liability issues. / Second, the current international liability regime is analysed with a view to consider the code-sharing scenario. The potential conflict between the different international legal regimes governing air carriers' liability is highlighted in order that this aspect be taken into account by the code-share partners in their contractual agreement. / Last but not least, some provisions of the new Montreal Convention of 28 May 1999 will be examined. A closer look will be given specifically to those provisions of Chapter V that are particularly applicable to a code-sharing situation.

This paper studies airline customers' online search and purchase behaviors. Two fundamental aspects of online behavior are examined: (1) the link between search behavior and buying behavior and (2) the evolution of inter-temporal search and purchase decisions of strategic buyers. In the first study, we examine online customers' dynamic conversion behaviors using clickstream data. A new model based on Markov chains that incorporates discrete choices and decision-timing is proposed to capture key search effects on consumer decisions as well as dynamics of browsing behavior both within and across visits. Empirical results show that within-site search activities lead to strong consumer engagement and thus increase purchase and revisit propensities. Fit comparison between first and second order Markov chains allows us to conclude that consumer decisions are primarily influenced by the current search. Furthermore, we observe that consumers dynamically adjust their browsing behavior both within and across visits. The second study investigates the evolution of inter-temporal search and purchase decisions of strategic buyers. Risk neutral buyers follow simple behavioral rules based on future and current prices and options available. We show that the trade-off between waiting and purchasing will become less and less favorable to waiting. Price elasticity should therefore drop as departure date approaches. With stationary price distributions, search and purchase efforts increase with proximity to the deadline. We extend the base model to allow for price evolution and demand uncertainty. We find that increases in mean price and price dispersion may attenuate increasing propensities for search and purchase. We demonstrate our models through a logit estimation on a unique data set from a major online travel agency.