Insights into the business air travel behaviour of residents in

the East Midlands

Lisa Davison, University of Ulster and Tim Ryley, Loughborough University

Overview Introduction Background The ‘Propensity to Fly’ project Research design Survey response Results

‒ Socio-demographic influences‒ Attitudes to air travel‒ Characteristics of the most recent business flight

Insights

Introduction

The aim of the paper is to examine the characteristics of business travellers who fly as part of their work

It outlines the profile of business travellers, considering‒ Socio-demographics (i.e. age, gender), ‒ Links to leisure travel (i.e. number of leisure trips the

previous year)‒ Types of business air travel (i.e. airlines, airports,

destinations) This provides insights into the air travel behaviour of

residents in the East Midlands

Background The air travel market can be segmented in a number of ways

‒ Travel purpose: business and leisure‒ Airline: Full service carrier, charter, low cost carrier‒ Travel class: business and economy

Demand for business travel‒ A globalising market requires connectivity to deliver

economic benefits ‒ Full service carrier, business class is product targeted at

this demand‒ Demand is increasingly met by low cost carriers and in

economy class cabins

Background

Influences upon demand can be identified as organisational and individual (Aguilera, 2008)

At the organisational level service and non-service sectors exert a demand (CAA, 2010)

The availability / attractiveness of alternatives to travel bear an influence (e.g. Gustafson, 2011)

At the individual level gender plays an influential role and many cases so does income (Aguilera et al., 2007; CAA, 2009; Lian and Denstadli, 2004)

Users of full service carriers are significantly older indicating their hierarchical position and status (Evangelho et al., 2005)

Business travellers are found to be more frequent flyers in comparison to leisure travellers (Dresner, 2006)

Propensity to Fly project

‘Propensity to Fly’ was an EPSRC 30-month project (November 2006 – April 2009)

Objectives:‒ Develop stated choice models of individual travel

behaviour to determine propensity to fly‒ Identify segments of the population with greatest

propensity to fly Particular focus on East Midlands residents – also on

leisure trips using low-cost airlines‒ But collected information on air travel in general

too, including business air travel

Research design

Data was collected via a series of surveys targeted at households in the East Midlands region

Each questionnaire collected‒ Background on the respondent’s air travel the previous

year (including the flight frequency for business and leisure purposes)

‒ Their travel from the nearest airport ‒ Future air travel choices‒ Their attitudes towards air travel

Focus here, is on respondents in employment, comparing those who have flown for business with those that have not

Research design

  Completed Method Sample selection Response         EMATS1 Autumn

2007 / Spring 2008

Postal household survey

Two sub-areas selected in each Northampton, Nottingham, Hinckley and Bosworth, North East Derbyshire and Newark and Sherwood using a combination of clustered and random sampling 

605 respondents(10% response rate)

EMATS2 Spring 2008 Internet household survey

Internet panel survey across the region with quotas to ensure a representative socio-demographic profile 

508 respondents

EMATS3 Spring 2009 Postal household survey

Two sub-areas selected in each Northampton, Nottingham, Hinckley and Bosworth, North East Derbyshire and Newark and Sherwood using a combination of clustered and random sampling 

559 (11% response rate)

Total: 1672

Research Design

0 10 205 Miles

Newark and Sherwood

Hinckley and Bosworth

North East Derbyshire

Northampton

Nottingham

0 100 20050 Miles

Survey response

  EMATS1

EMATS2

EMATS3

Total

Number in employment (% in sample)

355 (59%)

285 (56%)

303 (54%)

943 (56%)

Number taken business travel the previous year (% of those in employment)

44 (12%)

54 (19%)

39 (13%)

137 (15%)

Of this group, the number of business flights the previous year: 

1 flight 15 22 17 54

2 flights 9 14 8 31

3 flights 3 6 3 12

4 flights 6 3 1 10

5+ flights 11 9 10 30

Gender and taken a business flight in the last 12 months

EMATS 1 EMATS 2 EMATS 3 Male

Female

Males comprise 93 out of the 137 ‘business flyers’ across the three surveys (c2, p< .01 all surveys)

Other socio-demographic influences

Respondents in full time employment are significantly more likely to be business flyers than respondents who are self employed or are in part-time employment (c2, p< .01 across surveys)

Respondents with higher personal incomes are more likely to take air travel business trips (c2, p< .01 EMATS 1 & 2)

Those who fly for leisure purposes are also more likely to fly for business purposes (c2, p<.01 EMATS 2 and p<.1 EMATS 2 & 3)

Age (all surveys) and property type (collected EMATS 3) have no significant relationships

Attitudes to air travel

Each questionnaire used a 5 point Likert scale to gauge to level of agreement with the statements

‒ “Air travel is essential to the UK economy and to the country’s continuing prosperity” – general agreement

‒ “Air travel is a significant contributor to climate change” – general agreement

‒ “Passengers should pay more to fly because of the negative environmental aspects of aviation” – general disagreement

Two surveys found that ‘business flyers’ are significantly more likely to agree that air travel is essential to the economy (c2, p< .# EMATS 2 c2, p< .# EMATS 3 )

One survey found business flyer are more likely to agree that air travel is a significant contributor to climate change (c2, p< .# EMATS 2)

Characteristics of recent flights EMATS1 asked respondents to provide details about their

most recent return flight 34 refer to a business trip (26 in the previous year), of these

‒ 14 use Low Cost Carriers (ryanair, easyJet, bmi baby)‒ 15 travel from an airport in the Midlands‒ A further 15 travel in excess of 80 miles to a London

airport‒ Destinations within the UK and Ireland, e.g. Aberdeen,

Belfast, Dublin, are popular from East Midlands airports When asked about the likes and dislikes of the journey

positive comments relate to speed and convenience of the trip, negative comments, to delays and length of the journey

A high-value, long-haul business segment

Departure airport

Destination Airline Amount paid per person

Liked about air travel

Disliked about air travel

Return business flights

Heathrow Hong Kong British Airways

£1,500 Lounge Space on board

5+

Heathrow New York Virgin Atlantic

£750 Free drinks, very helpful staff, design of inner plane, efficiency

None

Birmingham Hydgrabad Emirates £581 Inflight service Length of journey

None

Heathrow Washington, D.C.

Virgin Atlantic

£1,500 Comfort and food Length of travel

2

Heathrow Johannesburg Virgin Atlantic

£6,500 Flat-bed upper class experience

Rude limousine driver to and from airport

5+

Heathrow Tokyo Virgin Atlantic

£3,480 Service - Limo pick up UK / Japan

Length of flight 5+ 

Insights

This research, focusing upon East Midlands residents, highlights that individuals taking air travel business trips tend to be male, in full-time employment and on higher incomes

There is some indication that they also fly more frequently for leisure purposes.

This research highlights a number of business air travel sub groups

‒ Infrequent versus frequent business flyers‒ Low cost versus full service carrier users‒ Domestic versus international travel‒ Trip versus facility focus

There is opportunity for further qualitative and quantitative research to develop these insights

References

Aguiléra, A., 2008. Business travel and mobile workers, Transportation Research Part A, 42, pp. 1109–1116Aguiléra, A. Massot, M.H., Proulhac, L., 2007. Work-related travel and the organization of daily mobility. A case study. In: Conference of the European Regional Science Association (ERSA), ParisCivil Aviation Authority – CAA., 2010. Flying on Business – a Study of the UK Business Air Travel Market Part 2, December 2010 Analysis of the UK Business Air Travel Market Dresner, M., 2006. Leisure versus business passengers: Similarities, differences, and implications, Journal of Air Transport Management, 12, pp. 28–32.Evangelho, F., Huse, C., Linhares, A., 2005. Market entry of a low cost airline and impacts on the Brazilian business travelers, Journal of Air Transport Management, 11, pp. 99–105.Gustafson, P., 2011. Managing business travel: Developments and dilemmas in corporate travel management, Tourism Management, 33, pp. 276-284.