A Study on Comparison Websites in the Airline Industry and Using CART Methods to Determine Key Parameters in Flight Search Conversion

Abstract: This bachelor thesis in applied mathematics and industrial engineering and management aimed to identify relationships between search parameters in flight comparison search engines and the exit conversion rate, while also investigating how the emergence of such comparison search engines has impacted the airline industry. To identify such relationships, several classification models were employed in conjunction with several sampling methods to produce a predictive model using the program R. To investigate the impact of the emergence of comparison websites, Porter's 5 forces and a SWOT - analysis were employed to analyze findings of a literature study and a qualitative interview. The classification models developed performed poorly with regards to several assessments metrics which suggested that there were little to no significance in the relationship between the search parameters investigated and exit conversion rate. Porter's 5 forces and the SWOT-analysis suggested that the competitive landscape of the airline industry has become more competitive and that airlines which do not manage to adapt to this changing market environment will experience decreasing profitability.