Market Research: Overcoming Incomplete, Inconsistent, or Outdated Data

Strategy is the art of asking, “Why?” To determine why a particular network of destinations is being served, two questions are key: (1) What are the level, structure, and evolution of demand on selected parts of the network?, and (2) What are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the various market participants on those markets? Reliable answers to both questions require extensive market research. While many institutions provide data on demand and supply for local markets, the more networked and interdependent effects on, for instance, city pairs may be difficult to research, inconsistent, missing for selected markets, outdated, or prohibitively expensive to regularly acquire. Market research in aviation is becoming increasingly complex. The aviation industry is providing large numbers of publicly or commercially available figures on many market aspects: volume and evolution of demand or supply, level of competition, and operational or financial results of airlines and other players in the aviation value chain. However, the various sources of data are frequently deficient or suffer from significant missing values or inconsistent definitions. In contrast to the plethora of available data, much vital information must be researched manually. This, in turn, depends on individual access to corporate decision makers or governmental bodies. In this chapter, a framework of industry terminology is offered along with a discussion of the most important sources of data in this field. Various perspectives on aviation markets also are reviewed.