Like in most other areas of choice analysis, the vast majority of studies of air
travel choice behaviour now make use of Stated Preference (SP) rather than
Revealed Preference (RP) data. However, experience as to the optimal design of
such surveys in the context of aviation is still very limited. This is a crucial issue
given the complexity of the choice processes undertaken by air travellers,
involving choices among a multitude of dimensions. In this paper, we present
results from a pilot study making use of an innovative SP survey that combines
traditional SP style questionnaires with choice experiments modelled on typical
online booking engines. Even with the very limited sample size used in this pilot
study, significant and meaningful effects of all major attributes are retrieved.
Furthermore, there are interesting insights into the different ways in which
respondents process the information from the two types of survey questionnaires.