The hidden side of dynamic pricing in airline markets

To study dynamic pricing in airline markets it is essential to model the time variation of the distribution of fares that airlines assign to all the airplane's seats. We show how a flight's fare distribution is set in practice and its consistency with the properties of a theoretical model. First, fare distributions are increasing across seats. Second, over time fare distributions move downward to reflect the perishable nature of seats. Third, we find that the fare observed by prospective buyers tends to increase as the date of departure nears