The broad concept of ancillary revenues encompasses all that activities that generate income beyond the simple sale of tickets through direct sales to passengers, or indirectly as a part of the travel experience (IdeaWorks, an airline ancillary revenue consulting and tracking firm, 2011). The aim of this thesis is to investigate the possible effects that crucial and significant financial indicators exercise on the development and adoption of ancillary revenues in and for the airline sector. The indirect question behind this statement is to find reasons, despite the ticket price, that stimulate and incentive their role. To understand how these deep and revolutionary changes are affecting the air transportation sector, before to present the econometric analysis performed, a comprehensive investigation is conducted. Starting from the liberalization process, the economic and political environment is illustrated, showing causes, consequences and the different air players’ reactions. The proposed contextualization analysis is useful to collocate in time and space the birth and evolution of this “new” category of profit, by understanding the motives and the reasons for an increasing and almost aggressive adoption of this strategy. Further analysis is dedicated to what concretely ancillary revenues are, demonstrating the level of acceptability of the ancillary fees by focusing on customers’ expectations and by investigating customers’ reactions. As shown by the previous literature, until nowadays, the various debates emphasise the qualitative aspect of ancillary sources. What this thesis would bring is a possible study from another perspective, with a more qualitative argument as basis. The empirical study is performed by employing a comprehensive dataset of 60 worldwide airlines from 2000 to 2018, with data individually collected. The fractional logit estimator is applied to control and verify the possible existence of relation between the dependent (i.e. the percentage of ancillary revenues) and the different independent variables. What emerges from the different regressions run is that only the variable “Load-factor” is statistically significant in any case. This could suggest that passengers’ response is mere subjective and not influenced by some external factors, hazarding that the ticket price remains the fundamental choice element.
Il vasto concetto di ricavi ancillari comprende tutte quelle attività che generano reditto oltre la semplice vendita dei singoli biglietti tramite vendite dirette ai passeggeri o indirettamente come parte dell’esperienza di volo (IdeaWorks, un’impresa di consulenza e monitoraggio esperta in ricavi ancillari, 2011). Scopo di questa tesi sarà quello di investigare i possibili effetti che significativi e cruciali indicatori finanziari esercitano sullo sviluppo e sull’adozione dei ricavi ancillari su e per il settore aereo. La domanda indiretta dietro questa affermazione è quella di cercare le ragioni ultime, oltre al prezzo del biglietto, che stimolano e incentivano il loro ruolo sempre più domimante. Per capire come questi profondi e rivoluzionari cambiamenti stiano colpendo il settore del trasporto aereo, prima di presentare il modello econometrico sviluppato, è stata condotta un’esaustiva analisi. Partendo dal processo di liberalizzazione, viene illustato il contesto economico-politico, mostrando cause, consequenze e le differenti reazioni delle compagnie aeree. La proposta analisi di contestualizzazione si rende utile allo scopo di collocare nel tempo e nello spazio la nascita e l’evoluzione di questa “nuova” categoria di profitto, capendo le ragioni e i motivi di questa crescente e quasi aggressiva adozione strategica. Ulteriore attenzione sarà dedicata a cosa concretamente siano questi ricavi, dimostrando il livello di accettazione delle tasse ancillari focalizzandosi sulle aspettative dei viaggiatori, investigando le loro reazioni. Come dimostrato dalla letteratura precendente, fino ad oggi i vari dibattiti hanno enfatizzato l’aspetto più qualitativo di questo trend. Ciò che questa tesi si propone di fare è uno possibile studio partendo da un’altra prospettiva, con argomentazioni di natura quantitativa come fondamento. Lo studio empirico, realizzato con dati personalmente raccolti, è sviluppato utilizzando un dataset formato da 60 compagnie mondiali per un arco termporale di quasi vent’anni, dal 2000 al 2018. L’estimatore “fractional logit” è applicato per controllare e verificare la possibile esistenza di una relazione tra la variabile dipendente, ossia i ricavi ancillari espressi in percentuale, e le varie variabili indipendenti. Emergerà, dalle diverse regressioni, che solamente la variabile “Load Factor” sarà statisticamente significativa in qualsiasi caso. Ciò potrebbe suggerire che la risposta dei passeggeri sia meramente soggettiva e non influenzata da qualche fattore esterno, azzardando che il prezzo del biglietto rimanga l’elemento decisionale fondamentale.
Le determinanti della profittabilità dei ricavi ancillari delle compagnie aeree: uno studio su dieci anni
SANTAGOSTINO, MARIA VITTORIA
2019/2020
Abstract
The broad concept of ancillary revenues encompasses all that activities that generate income beyond the simple sale of tickets through direct sales to passengers, or indirectly as a part of the travel experience (IdeaWorks, an airline ancillary revenue consulting and tracking firm, 2011). The aim of this thesis is to investigate the possible effects that crucial and significant financial indicators exercise on the development and adoption of ancillary revenues in and for the airline sector. The indirect question behind this statement is to find reasons, despite the ticket price, that stimulate and incentive their role. To understand how these deep and revolutionary changes are affecting the air transportation sector, before to present the econometric analysis performed, a comprehensive investigation is conducted. Starting from the liberalization process, the economic and political environment is illustrated, showing causes, consequences and the different air players’ reactions. The proposed contextualization analysis is useful to collocate in time and space the birth and evolution of this “new” category of profit, by understanding the motives and the reasons for an increasing and almost aggressive adoption of this strategy. Further analysis is dedicated to what concretely ancillary revenues are, demonstrating the level of acceptability of the ancillary fees by focusing on customers’ expectations and by investigating customers’ reactions. As shown by the previous literature, until nowadays, the various debates emphasise the qualitative aspect of ancillary sources. What this thesis would bring is a possible study from another perspective, with a more qualitative argument as basis. The empirical study is performed by employing a comprehensive dataset of 60 worldwide airlines from 2000 to 2018, with data individually collected. The fractional logit estimator is applied to control and verify the possible existence of relation between the dependent (i.e. the percentage of ancillary revenues) and the different independent variables. What emerges from the different regressions run is that only the variable “Load-factor” is statistically significant in any case. This could suggest that passengers’ response is mere subjective and not influenced by some external factors, hazarding that the ticket price remains the fundamental choice element.È consentito all'utente scaricare e condividere i documenti disponibili a testo pieno in UNITESI UNIPV nel rispetto della licenza Creative Commons del tipo CC BY NC ND.
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https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14239/314