Journal of Korean Society of Transportation ISSN:1229-1366(Print) 2234-4217(Online) 대한교통학회지

The flight delays negatively affect passengers, airlines, and airports. Congestion at airports, lousy weather, and poor connectivity of aircraft are general reasons for flight delays. Previous studies on flight delays have analyzed the cause of the delay and have suggested effective solutions. This study approaches flight delay from a different perspective. It investigates the relationship between flight delays and passengers’ purchasing behavior based on Incheon Airport duty-free shops’ actual transaction data. This study analyzes the impacts of flight delay on commercial revenue by employing two indicators: the intensive margin, the total spending per flight at commercial facilities, and the extensive margin, the percentage of purchased passengers per flight. This study suggests that the dwell time increase from flight delays increases both spendings per flight and purchase passenger ratio. It indicates that passengers are willing to use the increased dwell time for shopping. Primarily, flight delay affects more significantly the number of new purchasers than existing spendings. Thus, providing a discount voucher in case of a flight delay can help effectively managing passenger complaints. Promotion tools, such as a coupon with a larger discount rate for the initial purchase, can increase airport profits more than a uniform discount benefit. Meanwhile, excessive flight delays reduced passengers’ willingness to purchase. The flight delay exceeding approximately one hour reduces the spending per flight as well as the purchase passenger ratio.