Longitudinal examination of passenger characteristics among airline types in the US

We examine longitudinal changes (2005-2015) in the characteristics of passengers flying with two types of airlines in the United States: low-cost carriers (LCCs) and legacy carriers (or non-LCCs). In addition to the extant views on passenger similarities and dissimilarities across LCCs and NLCCs, we find that airline-type passenger segments are dynamic and constantly changing. Furthermore, we argue that such dynamics in passenger segments may have been escalated by the introduction of a new type of airline - ultra low-cost carriers (ULCCs). We assert that taking more caution in targeting air passengers is necessary, as we found a mixture of both convergence (e.g., airport access time, per diem) and divergence (e.g., number of checked bags, terminal wait time) in the key passenger characteristics across airline types.