WHITE RIVER JUNCTION, VT - November 10, 2000 - Resource Systems Group today released the results of its mid-year 2000 U.S. domestic air traveler survey. The project summary report, Air Travelers 2000: What do they really want and how much will they pay for it? provides a detailed breakdown of the factors that business and non-business domestic travelers value when they choose among alternative flights. Although some travelers are simply interested in finding the lowest fares, most look for overall value and, when they have alternatives, they weigh a variety of service elements against the fare.

Among the study's major findings:

1. Travelers are willing to pay significant amounts to avoid flights requiring connections and to have better on-time performance. The 12% drop in on-time performance that occurred on U.S. airlines between 1992 and 2000 results in more than $4 billion a year in lost value to travelers, not including the added airline operations costs, which may be reflected in higher fares.
   
   
2. Although business travelers place the highest value on basic service and amenities, non-business travelers also place significant value on these features; they do not just shop for the lowest fares.
   
   
3. The most valued on-board features are seat spacing, width and position. The (dreaded) center seat has a value $40 lower than the window and aisle seats.
   
   
4. Travelers on average are willing to pay about $35 more for additional on-board amenities that they receive on major carriers compared with those on discount airlines. They place a value of about $20 on extra seat spacing, as in American Airline's new coach class.
   
   
5. Most online reservations and ticketing systems do not provide travelers with sufficient information for them to evaluate the full value of alternative flights.

So, what do U.S. air travelers really want? They want good value. However, value is a complex function of the fare charged, service offered and amenities provided. Travelers are willing to pay significantly more for better service and more amenities and, conversely, perceive lower value when these decline. The increased numbers of flights and introductions of low-fare airlines over the past several years have increased one side of the value equation. However, those improvements have been offset by declines in on-time performance, increased scheduled flight times arising from airport congestion, more connections resulting from airline hub systems, higher load factors (with more occupied middle seats!), and general cost-driven erosion of coach class amenities. The survey results indicate that there are many ways in which the overall value of air service could be increased by the way the services provided by airlines, airport operators, travel reservation services are designed and delivered.

Resource Systems Group, Inc., a leading national transportation consulting and market research company, designed and independently funded this survey. The firm has conducted several hundred studies for major transportation services throughout North American, South America, Europe and Asia. Clients have included federal agencies, state and regional agencies, transportation service providers and equipment manufacturers. The study's author, Thomas Adler, has a PhD from MIT in Transportation Systems, was a professor and researcher at Dartmouth College for 10 years and has been a consultant with Resource Systems Group for the past 15 years. His professional work focuses on advanced market research methods and evaluation of transportation markets.

SurveyCafe.com, a market research eVenture of Resource Systems Group, conducted the survey, which consisted of half-hour in-depth interviews of 600 U.S. domestic air travelers.

A complimentary 5-page summary report and information about the more detailed study reports and related products are provided at www.surveycafe.com. Comments and information requests may be directed to the author at: