Development of a web‐based mobile airline ticketing model with usability features
| Pages | 1261-1277 |
| Date | 01 December 2005 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/02635570510633293 |
| Published date | 01 December 2005 |
| Author | June Wei,Ant Ozok |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
Development of a web-based
mobile airline ticketing model
with usability features
June Wei
Department of Management, University of West Florida, Pensacola, Florida,
USA, and
Ant Ozok
Department of Information Systems, University of Maryland, Baltimore,
Maryland, USA
Abstract
Purpose – Development of mobile commerce (m-commerce) environments that have user-friendly
features is important to accelerate the adoption of m-commerce. The current research studies
web-based features that are crucial to the success of mobile air ticketing commerce.
Design/methodology/approach – There are two phases involved. In the first phase, the current
research develops a web-based mobile airline ticketing (W-MAT) model to study usability features
necessary to perform mobile air ticketing commerce. Thirty-six features are mapped and identified
based on the W-MAT model. In the second phase, the air ticketing web sites for 27 most popular airline
companies and online air travel agencies are examined to analyze their existing implementation
patterns on these 36 features. The pattern analysis is based on web site features analysis and web site
versatility analysis.
Findings – The analysis of web site features resulted in the development of an adoption feature
pyramid that classified the 36 features into three categories. The analysis of web site versatility was
based on multivariate cluster analysis that classified these 27 web sites into four groups.
Practical implications – The findings on web site features and web site versatility analyses in the
current research are beneficial to future m-commerce airline companies and air travel agencies, mobile
device developers, and air ticketing m-commerce interface designers.
Originality/value – The study concludes that the W-MAT model-based air ticketing features with
usability emphasis are crucial to develop efficient mobile air ticketing web sites; and thereby,
accelerating the adoption of m-commerce for the air travel industry in the near future.
Keywords Electronic commerce,Internet, Airlines, Mobilecommunication systems,
Customer satisfaction
Paper type Research paper
1. Introductions
The US airline industry lost 15 billion in 2002 and 2003 and is expected to lose another
five billion in 2005 (Will, 2004). Most organizations in the airline industry have
attempted to respond to the financial turmoil through drastic evolution. Since the
tragedy in September 2001, the network or legacy carriers have sought ways to
improve business values and minimize losses by cutting jobs, eliminating rou tes,
decreasing infrastructure, streamlining production costs, improving customer services,
and creating a profitable market (Will, 2004). One of the most effective solutions for
increasing business values, attracting more customers, and increasing customer
satisfaction is to provide internet-based low-fare air travel tickets (Marks, 2004), i.e. to
The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister www.emeraldinsight.com/0263-5577.htm
Development of a
W-MAT model
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Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 105 No. 9, 2005
pp. 1261-1277
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/02635570510633293
sell low-fair air travel tickets and expedite boarding processes through company web
sites. Currently, many airlines are utilizing their own web sites to market and sell their
products to current and potential customers. Some airlines also offer discounts to
customers who purchase their tickets online (Hanke and Teo, 2003). Through the
expanded use of the internet-based ticketing, airlines are able to reduce labor costs and
in some cases eliminate commissions altogether so as to improve profit margins.
To sustaina significantcompetitive advantage,innovation and product differentiation
are critical for organizations. The next opportunity for airlines to reach new markets,
maintain low distribution costs, and enhance customer values and satisfaction can be
achieved through the use of mobile technologies, including using mobile devices to
purchase online air tickets (Hanke and Teo, 2003). However, unlike electronic commerce
(e-commerce) participants, users of mobile commerce (m-commerce) usually find
themselves in an unfamiliar and unpredictable environment (Perry et al.,2001);and
therefore, developing a user-friendly interface can reduce the constraints put by the
unpredictabilityof the mobile environment.
The adoption of mobile ticketing (m-ticketing) will enhance the flexibility and
effectiveness of using electronic ticketing (e-ticketing) due to its inheriting mobility by
using mobile devices. However, the adoption of m-ticketing in the air travel industry is
still slow and has not been widely implemented. In the US, the United Airlines is the
only airline company that currently provides m-ticketing. The development of
m-commerce environment with user-friendly features is important to accelerate the
adoption of m-commerce in the air travel industry. Motivated by the apparent lack of
literatures in the area of m-ticketing, the current research aims at studying web-ba sed
features that are crucial to the success of mobile air ticketing commerce. Specifically,
the objectives of the current study are to:
.analyze the existing air travel ticketing web site features and transaction flows
and develop a web-based mobile air travel ticketing model to provide
foundations to study air travel ticketing usability features necessary in
m-commerce;
.develop user-friendly features of air travel ticketing that are important for mobile
customers;
.analyze web site features and web site versatility for air travel ticketing; and
.classify air travel ticketing features in terms of their adoption patterns.
The current paper is organized as follows: Section 2 consists of the literature review.
Section 3 develops a web-based mobile airline ticketing (W-MAT) commerce model.
Section 4 presents the methodology by mapping m-commerce flows in the W-MAT
model into mobile air ticketing features, and identifies 36 user-friendly features for
mobile air travel ticketing. The existing airline ticketing web sites in e-commerce for
27 airline companies and online air travel agencies are examined. Section 5 presents
findings, and Section 6 presents discussions and conclusions.
2. Literature reviews
2.1 M-commerce
Generally, e-commerce is definedas a monetary transaction conductedusing the internet
and a desktop or a laptop computer (Will, 2004). M-commerce can be defined as a
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