Passenger choices and preferences for aircraft cabins in a culture-specific case: Japan.

Abstract

This thesis aims to identify the key aspects in the cabin interior and services by focusing on passengers’ preferences and to estimate the willingness to pay for different services and attributes in a culture-specific setting. The scope of the study includes passengers in Japan across all airline business segments for short-haul and medium-haul flights, utilising 2,700 stated preference observations included within a passenger survey conducted in Japan in 2016. While the identification of culture-specific characteristics and trends in Japan are analysed with a qualitative study, choice models and willingness to pay estimates for cabin features and services are revealed with a quantitative study. A stated preference (SP) survey is designed for choice models developed with multinomial and mixed logit models to analyse the results. The study includes two main categories in cabin; cabin interior and cabin services. Key aspects in the cabin interior included in the study are the physical attributes of the cabin in terms of space and seats. For in-cabin services, different levels of technologies including inflight entertainment (IFE), internet connection, and power supply and meal service are considered. A significant difference between medium (3-6 hours) and short- haul (<3 hours) flights is found based on entertainment and seating space along with expected meal services provided (i.e. the willingness to pay for seat pitch is $2.82 for short-haul while it is $12.76 for medium-haul flights). While the overall expectations for in-cabin services are not relatively high in short-haul flights, the results indicate towards high expectations for some attributes in medium-haul flights. These outcomes along with the understanding of Japanese passengers can contribute to the knowledge for an optimal ancillary revenue system, and the cabin interior and configurations in a culture-specific setting. Eventually, they may act as important parameters for the aircraft investment appraisal as a result in a specific region. Through the analysis, the value of seat pitch along with internet connection which can be interpreted as a form of IFE are found to be significant for passengers in Japan. In addition, the difference in the preferences of passengers for short and medium-haul flights are revealed and forecasted for different flight durations to give an insight into the valuation of cabin attributes for longer flights. The results indicate valuable outcomes to be considered based on culture-specific preferences for cabin design and services.