Air passenger demand studies for airport planning, forecasting, marketing, air service development, and passenger leakage typically correlate activity to aggregate socioeconomic data. However, there is concern that emerging socioeconomic changes, such as the age structure of society, increased immigration, wealth concentration, geographic redistribution of the population, and changing views on the use of disposable income, may not be well captured in current analytical methods. These changes may be better represented using disaggregated socioeconomic data. Yet there has not been definitive research demonstrating the potential benefit of using more detailed data, nor is there guidance to help incorporate these data in air passenger demand studies. Research is needed to identify and summarize long-term socioeconomic trends, understand their potential impact, and provide guidance for incorporating disaggregated socioeconomic data into air passenger demand studies.

 

The objectives of this research are to: (1) evaluate the feasibility and potential benefit of using disaggregated socioeconomic data (e.g., income distributions, age cohorts, ethnicity, trip purpose) to improve local air passenger demand studies (e.g., airport planning, forecasting, marketing, air service development, passenger leakage) and (2) develop a guidebook to assist practitioners in incorporating disaggregated socioeconomic data for the aforementioned studies.

 

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