PASSENGERS CHOICE OF AIRLINE UNDER COMPETITION - THE USE OF THE LOGIT MODEL

The continued liberalization of the airline market in the European Community offers the prospect of competition in terms of price, frequency of service and many other attributes. Understanding these factors that influence passenger demand and incorporating them into a demand function poses a substantial theoretical and empirical challenge. A basis for estimating demand functions is the logit model. This paper examines the value of a logit share model in explaining how the share of airlines between airports varies as a function of measured and unmeasured attributes. It shows how demand functions are necessary for understanding a competitive market and evaluates the progress to date in identifying accurate coefficients of the logit function.