Methodological framework for the investigation on the rapidly growing air travel market – An application of multivariate statistical analysis

Abstract The paper develops an integrated multivariate statistical model which can be used as a methodological framework for investigation the factors affecting the airline choice in rapidly growing air travel markets such as those in the Central (CE) and South-East Europe (SEE) countries. The methodological framework consisting of three multivariate statistical techniques (Principal Component Analysis, Canonical Correlation Analysis and Discriminant Analysis) are applied to data (766 passengers) collected at Belgrade Airport on the routes where there is competition between a full-service and a low-cost carrier to investigate the determinants affecting airline choice. The results reveal that passenger perceptions are significantly different across airline type and usage frequencies. Although a number of managerial implications stem from the applications of the methods, the results reveal the major finding that western concept of value added and purchasing decision making concept tend to be a ”complete mystery” for CE and SEE passengers due to its historical legacy.