Online Airline Ticket Sales

The general direction of traditional aviation literature in the past decade has been that there is "disintermediation" in the passenger airline industry as carriers cut out intermediaries, such as travel agents and Global Distribution Systems, and sell tickets directly to customers through the Internet. The claim is largely based on experiences in North America, Europe and to some extent Asia, regions with demonstrated electronic readiness and electronic culture. However, this empirical work has established that instead of "disintermediation" the number intermediaries in air travel have increased through the emergence of Internet-based platforms. It has also been found that in regions with low electronic readiness and low electronic culture the Internet has had little or no impact on business. Since airline ticket sales have been held out as leading the online sales revolution, this book provides new and interesting reading for anyone with an interest in airline marketing and the development of online sales.