Global Hub Competition and Airfare Differences: A Comparative Analysis of International Flights
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18211889Keywords:
Airline ticket pricing, Hub competition, Price difference analysisAbstract
This study compares the prices of direct flights offered by Turkish Airlines (THY) on long-haul international flights departing from Istanbul with the prices of connecting flights offered by competitors via six global hubs. The dataset, consisting of 233 observations obtained from parallel searches conducted on the same day, allows for a separate assessment of the price competitiveness of connecting flights on eastbound and westbound routes. Price differences were calculated on a destination basis as THY direct price – hub price, and non-parametric group comparisons were performed using the Kruskal–Wallis and Mann–Whitney U tests. The findings reveal that flights via different hubs have different prices, but that the flight being in the western or eastern market alone does not create a significant difference. It was observed that airlines offered higher prices than THY for flights to the east via the FRA, DXB, and CDG hubs, while price dynamics were more heterogeneous for flights to the west. The findings show that the main determinant of price differentiation is not the flight direction, but the competitive pricing strategies of hub carriers.
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