تاثیر تجارت الکترونیک در بازارهای مسافرت هوایی : توزیع بلیط های هواپیمایی در کره جنوبی

Early e-business activity in the airline industry was limited to the provision of flight schedule information to customers on websites. Recently, however, many airlines have expanded the capability of their web sites for selling tickets to make use of this cheap distribution channel. Here, we explore the impacts of airline e-business on the performance of air ticket distribution channels. Through a conjoint analysis, we suggest a model to estimate the change of market sales for each distribution channel. The impact of e-business on air travel markets and some implications on e-business strategy for both airlines and travel agents are also identified through an empirical survey.

The proliferation of the Internet since the mid-1990s has generated a wide range of strategic IT-based business processes. The importance of the Internet in conducting business, particularly as a communication and distribution channel for services and products between customers and suppliers, has been emphasized. It has enabled some businesses to improve their competitiveness and performance. As with many other industries, the Internet has impacted on the air travel industries. It can provide a direct connection between airlines and customers without the need to use travel agents or Computer Reservation Systems (CRS), thereby leading to cost savings in the distribution of air tickets (Law and Leung, 2000). In some cases it can result in travelers bypassing travel agents altogether (Buhalis and Licata, 2002), although Palmer and McCole (1999) argue that a key strength of agents is their ability to provide personal information and advice to travelers. Commercial implementation of the Internet has been extensive in the travel industries and its impact has been particularly significant on the distribution channel for air travels (Jarach, 2002) and the use of the Internet for searching and purchasing airline tickets has become common in travel markets. Airlines have recognized the Internet and information technologies, as sources for information dissemination and as a means of revenue-generating, and have devoted efforts toward developing e-business platforms (Smith et al., 2001; Alamdari and Mason, 2006). Here, we focus at the impacts of airline e-business on the air travel market, especially with regard to air ticket distribution channels.

Most agree that current air travel markets will shift from traditional travel agents to Internet-based agents. The findings from this study show that airlines’ e-business activity may have significant impacts on air ticket distribution channels. The reinforcement of e-business activity in airlines has resulted in an increase of sales volume for airlines’ websites and a decrease for the traditional distribution channels. It is often difficult, however, to increase sales volume on the Internet by airline e-business activities alone without cooperation with agents. This is because group travel, which forms a large portion of air travel demands in Korea, is also affected by marketing activities of travel agents. When airlines and travel agents employ cooperative e-business activities, the choice probabilities for airline websites and Internet travel agents can increase simultaneously.