Leisure versus business passengers: Similarities, differences, and implications

As low-cost air carriers increase their market share, the percentage of leisure to total passengers will increase. Data from an airport passenger survey are analyzed to document differences and similarities between leisure and business passengers. Surprisingly, the two groups of passengers are quite similar in terms of their reasons for choosing to fly from the airport surveyed, their parking requirements, and the number of bags they checked. These similarities indicate that airline and airport managers may not be obliged to make significant adjustments to their operations to account for the changing passenger mix.