Dynamic price dispersion in airline markets

This study analyzes the factors that explain the variations of daily airfares across fare histories, or dynamic price dispersion. Empirical analyses show that dynamic price dispersion is significantly influenced by demand characteristics variables such as population, income and the share of business passengers, as well as by competitive pressures stemming from the presence of low-cost carriers, but not by the competition intensity. The impact of these variables intensifies as the departure date approaches. These results imply that in the presence of low-cost carriers, full-service carriers tend to adopt a more aggressive high-low pricing strategy. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.