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Publication
Understanding how fear of flying affects the consumption behavior of commercial airline passengers
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| 1.25 MB | Adobe PDF |
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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
It is estimated that fear of flying affects more than one-third of all people and it
is related to a high perception of risk. This fear affects people negatively on a
personal and professional level. It also impacts airline costs because it reduces
demand and might compromise flights' on-time performance among other
disruptions. Most of the studies on perceptions and behaviors of consumers
with this fear have specific contexts and are quantitative. Therefore, this
research had a qualitative approach to understand how fear of flying affects the
consumption behavior of commercial airline passengers. The triangulation
method was applied by collecting 44 web testimonials from fear of flying
passengers and by conducting semi-structured interviews, 11 with fear of
flying passengers and 3 with clinical psychologists involved with the treatment
of this fear. Following the content analysis of the collected data, the main result
of this research is that the consumption behavior of fear of flying passengers is
affected not just by their air travel perceived risks but also by how they cope
with the stress associated with it. The outcome can be positive or negative for
both, FoF passengers and airlines. It is recommended that airlines consider this
target segment in their marketing strategy to potentialize the market
dimension, starting by reinforcing the brand reputation and endorsing support
for these consumers.
Description
Keywords
Consumer behavior Fear of flying Air travel perceived risk Coping responses