Investigations on Product Purchase Behaviour of Domestic Air Travellers

Abstract

The Indian civil aviation industry has emerged as one of the fastest-growing industries in the country. Compared to 99 airports in March 2018, nearly 200 operational airports are expected in India by 2040. However, the self-sustainability of the airports remains a concern. Airport revenue comes from mainly two sources aeronautical and non-aeronautical. Out of which, non-aeronautical revenue through retailing is emerging as a critical resource for self-sustainability. An airport user is a potential shopper, including travellers (passengers), airport working personnel, meters, and greeters. Among these shoppers, air passenger purchase has distinctive characteristics. They are not at the airport terminal for the primary purpose of purchasing, but they are captive customers. The passengers experience feelings of stress and excitement at the same time. However, they are time-sensitive customers. Thus, it gives rise to the importance of understanding passenger purchase behaviour at the airport and investigates the typology of passengers who shop and their product category. Given these distinct characteristics, few studies examine Indian domestic travellers. Further, to the best of our knowledge, there exists no comprehensive framework of purchase behaviour of Indian domestic passengers that incorporates various stages of purchase-including purchase decision, purchase satisfaction, and post-purchase intention. Most of the existing studies are limited to duty-free purchases and the purchase behaviour of international travellers. The study defines four objectives to address these research gaps. 1) identify external and internal drivers influencing airport purchase and develop an airport purchase behaviour model, 2) examine significant relationships between variables and their influence on airport purchase decision, 3) examine significant relationships between variables and their influence on airport purchase satisfaction and post-purchase intention...