Have the major forces driving leisure airline traffic changed?

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the major forces which are driving leisure airline traffic and to assess whether these have changed in recent years. Initially this is undertaken by considering global patterns of airline and tourism demand and then by a more detailed investigation of the UK situation. The research indicates that airline demand is becoming less sensitive to income changes and also that the share of income spent on air travel is not showing much growth. Both of these suggest that airline demand may be becoming more mature, with growth being increasingly driven by price reductions rather than income changes. Moreover evidence from the UK shows that changing customers preferences, and subsequent industry developments to accommodate these, appear to be having a significant impact on the demand for different types of leisure air trips.