Distribution of Airline Tickets: A Tale of Two Market Structures

29 Pages Posted: 21 Nov 2007

See all articles by Volodymyr Bilotkach

Volodymyr Bilotkach

Newcastle Business School

Marija Pejcinovska

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Date Written: November 2007

Abstract

We analyze a sample of fare quotes, collected from the three leading on-line travel agents on fifty large US airline markets. Looking at the lowest fares available, we determine competition between the travel agents ensures the consumer can get a better deal. The travel agents compete more on those airline markets which are less competitive. Also, we find individual agents appear to discriminate for or against individual airlines when deciding whether or not to report airlines' lowest offered fare quotes. As different agents discriminate for/against different airlines, we conjecture that what we observe resembles a 'market-sharing' arrangement.

Keywords: Ticket distribution, on-line travel agents, airlines

JEL Classification: L10, L13, L91, L93

Suggested Citation

Bilotkach, Volodymyr and Pejcinovska, Marija, Distribution of Airline Tickets: A Tale of Two Market Structures (November 2007). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1031747 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1031747

Volodymyr Bilotkach (Contact Author)

Newcastle Business School ( email )

208, City Campus East-1
Newcastle upon-Tyne, NE1 8ST
United Kingdom

Marija Pejcinovska

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

No Address Available

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
305
Abstract Views
2,268
Rank
181,633
PlumX Metrics