The evolution of airline distribution channels and their effects on revenue management performance

Over the past ten years, the development of more advanced computer systems and the growth in the use of the Internet have led to numerous changes in airline ticket distribution strategies. For example, the use of websites for booking and ticketing air travel continues to increase, and the Internet is often cited as the preferred model for a low-cost distribution channel. At the same time, Network Revenue Management methods are now viewed as a key tool for airlines to maximize revenue in an increasingly competitive marketplace. These new systems and tools have helped the airlines achieve record profits in the strong economy of the late 1990s, but these profits may have masked hidden costs of using the new technology. Examples of hidden costs include the added computational burden of increased search engine requests to the computer reservations system as well as the increased opportunity for automated systems to bypass the booking limits set by the revenue management system. Such costs have yet to be examined and quantified in an academic research effort. The purpose of this thesis research is to understand a variety of issues related to how the technologies of more advanced distribution channels and more sophisticated revenue management systems interact with each other and impact air travel providers.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Dorinson, Diana M. (Diana Marie), 1974-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Peter Belobaba.

• Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/29391

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/29391