Accounting for random taste heterogeneity in airport-choice modelling

The findings from a disaggregate analysis of the choice of airport, airline, and access mode for business travelers living in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, are presented. Aside from formulation of the multidimensional choice process, the main objective is to explore random taste heterogeneity among decision makers in their evaluation of the attractiveness of the different alternatives. The results indicate that this heterogeneity is present in tastes relating to in-vehicle access time, access cost, and flight frequency. Accounting for this heterogeneity leads to gains in model fit but, more important, leads to important insights into the differences in behavior across decision makers and avoids the bias introduced into trade-offs when fixed coefficients are used in the presence of significant levels of heterogeneity. In terms of substantive results, the models also reveal a significant impact of changes in out-of-vehicle access time, indicate a preference for service on jet over turboprop flights, and show that experience plays an important role in air travel choice behavior.