Reliability analysis of assisted-GPS technologies for post-flight analysis

This research analysed the reliability of an assisted-GPS mobile phone in tracking several flight parameters during a typical flight. The reliability was assessed against that of a GPS-based remote tracking device of common use in aviation. The results suggest that the reliability of both devices is similar, which may prove advantageous to those pilots with lesser resources or less interested on a dedicated tracking device

Net profitability of airline alliances, an empirical study

This study examines the net return for airlines before and after joining an alliance. The research database was compiled from ICAOData, and comprised 15 international airlines as subjects and their net financial results for a period of 11 years as primary research variables. Two variables, the averages of five and three years net performance before joining an alliance, were tested against another variable, the average net performance five years after joining the alliance. Results show a deterioration of net profits after joining an alliance, although this trend was only significant when comparing performance over the short-term. However, the performance of American airlines accounted for most of this trend, which may have being partly affected by the consequences of September 11 2001

A convenient regression formula for predicting Skytrax’s Official World Airport Star ratings

Skytrax audits and ranks airports internationally in its yearly ‘Official World Airport Star Ranking’. Unfortunately, its activity is severely restricted, at most covering just 3% of those airports listed by Skytrax as open to review by passengers in its website in 2010. This research article explored the possibility of using a readily available variable as predictor, as an alternative way of ranking the remaining 97% of airports in a simpler and more straightforward manner. The regression formula retained correlated highly with the criterion variable, accounting for 45% of its variance, thus supporting the viability of using customer reviews as a possible way of predicting ranking scores for airport not officially audited by Skytrax

The net profitability of airline alliances using referential dollars

This study revises a previous research in which we analysed the net profitability of airline alliances but did not control for the impact of inflation on such profitability. Using the same methodology, 15 international airlines as subjects and their net financial results for a period of 11 years as primary research variables, we now compared the performance of airlines before and after joining their respective alliances using referential dollars (i.e., constant dollars with 2010 as base year) instead of nominal dollars. The results showed a similar deterioration in short-term net profits after joining an alliance as the previous study did, and a similar behaviour of statistics tests. Thus, the conclusion then achieved still stand after this revision

Predicting Skytrax’s Official World Airline Star ratings from customer reviews

Skytrax audits and ranks airlines internationally in its yearly ‘Official World Airline Star Ranking’. Unfortunately, its activity is severely restricted, at most covering just 30% of those airlines listed as open for review by passengers in its website in 2010. This research article explored the possibility of using a readily available variable as predictor, as an alternative way of ranking the remaining 70% of airlines in a simpler and more straightforward manner. The regression formula retained correlated highly with the criterion variable, accounting for 47% of its variance, thus supporting the viability of using customer reviews as a possible way of predicting ranking scores for airlines not officially audited by Skytrax

Airline passengers’ rights to information and the strange case of the right to be informed about destinations

This research explored whether airline passengers wanted more rights to know about the safety and economic conditions of their flights, as well as the right to be reimbursed if they decided not to flight because of perceived risks. Overall, passengers agreed somehow on having more safety rights, but not so regarding financial rights. Surprisingly, they also wanted to have the right to be informed about their destinations (hotels, attractions, etc), something that is foreign to the purpose and duties of air transport