Role Of Operations And Market Research For Offering Cheap Air Tickets

Airlines do try to define an optimal pricing strategy which, even if difficult to implement in practice, can give reference points for varying the prices as per the changing variables. The emergence of low cost carriers for short-haul flights all over the world has, in fact, been instrumental in changing the pricing structures and strategies of not only the domestic but also the international flights. All those flights which can take you to your destination in a span of a few hours, say less than 2-3 hours, are good cases for being positioned as low cost airlines.

There is a great deal of mathematical and statistical modelling and analysis which makes it possible for the airlines to redefine their pricing strategies and structures as per the changing times, offering cheap air tickets to the end-customers all the time and remaining profitable. Cheap international flights have been made possible by operational, strategic and structural changes in the industry.  Operations research has helped in the following ways in offering the cheap tickets:

1.   Carrying out quantitative and qualitative research on the patterns of current and expected passenger flows. This forms the baseline for pricing structure.

2.   Research on the new routing patterns and effect of various operational parameters such as different stop-over destinations on the operational efficiency of the airlines.

3.   Scheduling of the airline flights for different times of the day and for different days of the week depending on the current and expected demand for flying on a particular segment of travel. This rationalization of scheduling helps in apportioning of airline resources judiciously which prevents inefficiencies of operation.

4.   For the international flights, the market research on passenger demand and motives of travelling, be it business, leisure or any other, also helps in delineating a favorable price structure.

It is a fact that in the absence of the proper market research data on multiple aspects, it is not possible to devise an operational strategy which is beneficial both for the customers as well as for the airlines. So, the cheap air tickets that you get today has resulted from years-long process of research and forecasting.