Eliciting preferences of Indians for air travel during COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed air travel like never before. Airlines are rebuilding consumer confidence by taking several measures, such as providing luggage sanitation and flexible ticket services, blocking middle seats for social distancing, and implementing fast check-in processes. This study develops a fresh understanding of how these factors shape air travel demand in the peri-pandemic situation. To this end, we conducted a discrete choice experiment among over 600 domestic air travelers in India. The estimated discrete choice models provide the relative importance of factors in explaining travelers’ itinerary preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for new services. The results provide several policy-relevant insights. First, the maximum WTP for refundable ticket service is zero for 21% of respondents and below INR 1000 (≈ USD 12.5) for 84% of respondents. Air travelers who are married with children and opt for luggage sanitation services are more likely to be potential buyers of refundable tickets. Second, Indian air travelers’ WTP for fast check-in and luggage sanitation services is around 10% of the base ticket fare. Third, the airlines could increase aging travelers’ comfort and safety perception by implementing fast check-in service, as their itinerary preferences are three times more sensitive to the provision of this service than their younger counterparts. Fourth, while a blocked middle seat does not affect air travel demand, mandatory vaccination certification is preferred on average over an RT-PCR test. This study thus helps airlines to operationalize comfortable and safe air travel in peri-pandemic situations.