Passenger airport choice decisions in a multi-airport region in South Africa

Abstract: Airports in a multi-airport region (MAR) have to compete for passengers and the airport choices of these passengers depend on a number of explanatory variables. This research investigated the airport choice behaviour of domestic passengers in a South African MAR by determining their sensitivity to different choice attributes. For this purpose, a discrete choice approach based on stated preference data was used to identify the preferences of departing passengers from two neighbouring airports. The questionnaire was based on a Bayesian efficient (Doptimal) design with 60 choice sets. Computer aided personal interview (CAPI) surveys at each of the airports resulted in 6180 records. In order to account for preference heterogeneity a Latent Class Model (LCM) was calibrated taking into account access time, access cost, air fare, parking cost, parking time, flight frequency and flight delays..