IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/jorapm/v16y2017i5d10.1057_s41272-017-0081-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An implementable optimization of airfare structure

Author

Listed:
  • Brian So

    (Princeton University)

Abstract

Pricing and especially fare structures have received little attention within the revenue management literature. For an airline, well-designed fare structures segment customers properly, selling to correct customers at intended prices. For a given origin and destination, the pricing manager seeks to maximize revenue by jointly optimizing all price levels in the airline’s menu of fares. Deterministic demand is modeled using booking periods as primary customer segments; inventory management is integrated as a secondary segmentation tool. Analytical solutions are attained under various demand functional forms, and comparative statics are juxtaposed to reveal characteristics of each demand type.

Suggested Citation

  • Brian So, 2017. "An implementable optimization of airfare structure," Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 16(5), pages 441-465, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:jorapm:v:16:y:2017:i:5:d:10.1057_s41272-017-0081-5
    DOI: 10.1057/s41272-017-0081-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41272-017-0081-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41272-017-0081-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Guillermo Gallego & Garrett van Ryzin, 1994. "Optimal Dynamic Pricing of Inventories with Stochastic Demand over Finite Horizons," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 40(8), pages 999-1020, August.
    2. Lawrence R. Weatherford, 1997. "Using Prices More Realistically as Decision Variables in Perishable-Asset Revenue Management Problems," Journal of Combinatorial Optimization, Springer, vol. 1(3), pages 277-304, October.
    3. Osborne, Martin J. & Pitchik, Carolyn, 1986. "Price competition in a capacity-constrained duopoly," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 238-260, April.
    4. Asif Syed Raza & Ali Akgunduz, 2008. "An airline revenue management pricing game with seat allocation," International Journal of Revenue Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 2(1), pages 42-62.
    5. Puller, Steven L. & Taylor, Lisa M., 2012. "Price discrimination by day-of-week of purchase: Evidence from the U.S. airline industry," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 84(3), pages 801-812.
    6. Wen Zhao & Yu-Sheng Zheng, 2000. "Optimal Dynamic Pricing for Perishable Assets with Nonhomogeneous Demand," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 46(3), pages 375-388, March.
    7. Gale, Ian L & Holmes, Thomas J, 1993. "Advance-Purchase Discounts and Monopoly Allocation of Capacity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(1), pages 135-146, March.
    8. Wedad Elmaghraby & P{i}nar Keskinocak, 2003. "Dynamic Pricing in the Presence of Inventory Considerations: Research Overview, Current Practices, and Future Directions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 49(10), pages 1287-1309, October.
    9. Kenneth S. Corts, 1998. "Third-Degree Price Discrimination in Oligopoly: All-Out Competition and Strategic Commitment," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 29(2), pages 306-323, Summer.
    10. Armstrong, Mark & Vickers, John, 2001. "Competitive Price Discrimination," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 32(4), pages 579-605, Winter.
    11. Guillermo Gallego & Ming Hu, 2014. "Dynamic Pricing of Perishable Assets Under Competition," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(5), pages 1241-1259, May.
    12. Gabriel Bitran & René Caldentey, 2003. "An Overview of Pricing Models for Revenue Management," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 5(3), pages 203-229, August.
    13. James D. Dana Jr., 1998. "Advance-Purchase Discounts and Price Discrimination in Competitive Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(2), pages 395-422, April.
    14. Nocke, Volker & Peitz, Martin & Rosar, Frank, 2011. "Advance-purchase discounts as a price discrimination device," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 146(1), pages 141-162, January.
    15. Zhang, Michael & Bell, Peter C. & Cai, Gangshu (George) & Chen, Xiangfeng, 2010. "Optimal fences and joint price and inventory decisions in distinct markets with demand leakage," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 204(3), pages 589-596, August.
    16. Holmes, Thomas J, 1989. "The Effects of Third-Degree Price Discrimination in Oligopoly," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(1), pages 244-250, March.
    17. T C Botimer & P P Belobaba, 1999. "Airline pricing and fare product differentiation: A new theoretical framework," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 50(11), pages 1085-1097, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Miju Ahn & Xiaodong Luo & Sergey Shebalov, 2020. "Variable pricing: an integrated airline pricing and revenue management model," Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 19(6), pages 421-435, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marc Möller & Makoto Watanabe, 2016. "Competition in the presence of individual demand uncertainty," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 47(2), pages 273-292, May.
    2. Nadia Ceschi & Marc Moeller, 2021. "Advance Selling in the Wake of Entry," Diskussionsschriften dp2109, Universitaet Bern, Departement Volkswirtschaft.
    3. Syed Asif Raza & Rafi Ashrafi & Ali Akgunduz, 2020. "A bibliometric analysis of revenue management in airline industry," Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 19(6), pages 436-465, December.
    4. Yannis Kerkemezos & Bas Karreman, 2020. "On the Benefits of Being Alone: Scheduling Changes, Intensity of Competition and Dynamic Airline Pricing," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 20-042/VII, Tinbergen Institute.
    5. Stole, Lars A., 2007. "Price Discrimination and Competition," Handbook of Industrial Organization, in: Mark Armstrong & Robert Porter (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 34, pages 2221-2299, Elsevier.
    6. Jin Qin & Wenxuan Qu & Xuanke Wu & Yijia Zeng, 2019. "Differential Pricing Strategies of High Speed Railway Based on Prospect Theory: An Empirical Study from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-17, July.
    7. Diego Escobari, 2012. "Dynamic Pricing, Advance Sales and Aggregate Demand Learning in Airlines," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(4), pages 697-724, December.
    8. Alderighi, Marco & Gaggero, Alberto A. & Piga, Claudio A., 2022. "Hidden prices with fixed inventory: Evidence from the airline industry," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 42-61.
    9. Ningyuan Chen & Guillermo Gallego, 2019. "Welfare Analysis of Dynamic Pricing," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(1), pages 139-151, January.
    10. Xuanming Su, 2007. "Intertemporal Pricing with Strategic Customer Behavior," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(5), pages 726-741, May.
    11. Kevin R. Williams, 2017. "The Welfare Effects of Dynamic Pricing: Evidence from Airline Markets," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2103R2, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University, revised Jun 2021.
    12. Luttmann, Alexander & Gaggero, Alberto A, 2020. "Purchase discounts and travel premiums during holiday periods: Evidence from the airline industry," MPRA Paper 104863, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Kevin R. Williams, 2022. "The Welfare Effects of Dynamic Pricing: Evidence From Airline Markets," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 90(2), pages 831-858, March.
    14. Dasci, A. & Karakul, M., 2009. "Two-period dynamic versus fixed-ratio pricing in a capacity constrained duopoly," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 197(3), pages 945-968, September.
    15. Escobari, Diego, 2014. "Estimating dynamic demand for airlines," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 124(1), pages 26-29.
    16. Yuri Levin & Jeff McGill & Mikhail Nediak, 2008. "Risk in Revenue Management and Dynamic Pricing," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 56(2), pages 326-343, April.
    17. Pavithra Harsha & Shivaram Subramanian & Joline Uichanco, 2019. "Dynamic Pricing of Omnichannel Inventories," Service Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(1), pages 47-65, January.
    18. Ioannis Stamatopoulos & Christos Tzamos, 2019. "Design and Dynamic Pricing of Vertically Differentiated Inventories," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(9), pages 4222-4241, September.
    19. Seo, Kyowon & Go, Sarang & Kim, Byungdo, 2020. "Pricing strategies under markets with time gap between purchase and consumption," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 312-320.
    20. Ibrahim, Michael Nawar & Atiya, Amir F., 2016. "Analytical solutions to the dynamic pricing problem for time-normalized revenue," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 254(2), pages 632-643.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:jorapm:v:16:y:2017:i:5:d:10.1057_s41272-017-0081-5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.