A study of the competitiveness of airline cargo services departing from Korea: Focusing on the main export routes

•We analyze the selection factors and competitiveness of airlines focusing on three routes.•Price appears to be the most important selection factor for all routes.•Korean Air receives the highest overall competitiveness values for all routes.

The purpose of this study was to identify the competitive service factors of airlines by rating the views of forwarders in the export market departing from Korea. An Analytic Hierarchy Process was applied to data collected from the officers of the top 50 forwarders in charge of choosing the airlines. The results showed that price appeared to be the most important factor for all routes. Other attributes showed varying degrees of importance, depending on the route. Based on the results, the most competitive airlines were selected for each route and strategic alternatives were proposed for each airline.