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On the fairness of airlines’ ticket pricing as a result of revenue management techniques

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  • Aslani, Shirin
  • Modarres, Mohammad
  • Sibdari, Soheil

Abstract

Pricing and availability of tickets have always been a source of confusion for customers in transportation industries. What is the best time to buy tickets? Why passengers taking the same flight might pay significantly different prices for the same seat? Why round trip tickets between two cities sometimes become cheaper than the one-way flights between them? Is it fair to buy a ticket for an itinerary cheaper than a ticket for just a part of it? These observations make customers wonder why they pay higher prices for shorter flights. In this paper, we study the airlines’ revenue management systems and explain some of these pricing schemes in travel industries. We develop a simulator to study the decision making process of network revenue management and use a numerical study to explore these questions and address some explanations for them. We relate these observations to the revenue management measurements such as the bid price or the adjustment cost and show how the dynamic of the network get influenced by these measures that eventually results in unusual pricing. We explain how a zero or small bid price of a specific leg may cause the price of an itinerary be cheaper than one segment of it and that the small bid price is caused by low demand in comparison to the available capacity. We exhibit network revenue management system and show the above issues for a small network.

Suggested Citation

  • Aslani, Shirin & Modarres, Mohammad & Sibdari, Soheil, 2014. "On the fairness of airlines’ ticket pricing as a result of revenue management techniques," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 56-64.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jaitra:v:40:y:2014:i:c:p:56-64
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2014.05.004
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Gaggero, Alberto A. & Luttmann, Alexander, 2023. "The determinants of hidden-city ticketing: Competition, hub-and-spoke networks, and advance-purchase requirements," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    3. Masood Kiarashrad & Seyed Hamid Reza Pasandideh & Mohammad Mohammadi, 2021. "Identifying and prioritizing the essential factors on ticket pricing strategy in a local market based on empirical study: Iranian domestic market," Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 20(1), pages 76-87, February.
    4. An, Jaehyung & Mikhaylov, Alexey & Jung, Sang-Uk, 2021. "A Linear Programming approach for robust network revenue management in the airline industry," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    5. Klein, Robert & Kolb, Johannes, 2015. "Maximizing customer equity subject to capacity constraints," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 111-125.
    6. Sun, Xiaoqian & Wandelt, Sebastian & Zhang, Anming, 2023. "Price discrimination through hidden city options? A data-driven study on the extent and evolution of skiplaggability in the global aviation system," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).

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