Markets

Aviation

The aviation industry is large, complex, and rapidly changing. Changes in technologies, mobility options, and traveler behavior have led to challenges like shifting customer preferences and expectations, increasing curbside congestion, and declining parking revenues.

RSG’s analytical and modeling capabilities and deep understanding of the transportation market are ideally suited to these challenges. At our core, we know traveler and customer behavior today and can simulate this behavior in the context of a dynamic and complex system. This insight provides a window to possible future scenarios to enable confident decision making and to find cost-effective strategies for improving customer experience at every stage of their journey—from ticket purchase to ground access to in-flight amenities.

We have worked with clients in all major segments of aviation, including airports, major airlines, aircraft manufacturers, airport access services, and federal transportation agencies.

AIRPORTS

The exploding use of transportation network companies (TNCs) has upended established landside operations at airports. Declining parking revenues, congested curbsides, and shifts away from traditional access modes are just a few of the major changes airports must plan for.

TNCs today, fully-autonomous passenger drones tomorrow, our insights can enable you translate these changes into opportunities with management strategies that can guide infrastructure investments and improve the customer experience. RSG delivers insights that can help:

• Manage curbside congestion
• Increase ground access revenue
• Improve customer satisfaction 

AIRLINES

To compete in the global marketplace, airlines need to respond to consumer demand that is shaped by the interplay of pricing, on-board amenities, and service features. We have experience delivering insights that can help:

• Optimize service pricing and features
• Evaluate ticket bundling and tiered pricing
• Develop and optimize loyalty programs
• Improve revenue management

We work with airlines and other service providers to effectively balance pricing with service level and amenities to prioritize actions that will satisfy customers and capture market share.

AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURERS

Consumer preferences for aircraft type, engine type and location, seating configuration, and on-board amenities allows aircraft manufacturers to optimize product lines and differentiate their offerings. RSG works with aircraft manufacturers to:

• Optimize cabin configurations
• Understand consumer preference and willingness to pay for in-flight features and amenities
• Understand consumer preference for aircraft types, including acceptance and adoption of future aviation technologies

AIR TRAVEL RESEARCH

We have directed several high-profile projects for the National Academies’ Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) addressing everything from innovative methods for addressing airport capacity issues to airport access to the estimation of air passengers’ implied values of travel time savings. We have also conducted planning studies for many of the major U.S. airports and port authorities and are currently under contract with U.S. DOT to develop a national model of long-distance passenger travel markets.