Investigating the impacts of budget airlines towards the mode choice decision of business travellers: A case study of Klang Valley, Malaysia

In the past, the studies of mode choice decision focusing on the air transport and ground transport is very limited. In contrast to earlier literature, this paper examines the impacts of budget airlines in modelling the mode choice of business travellers towards the air transport and ground transport. By undertaking a stated preference survey in Klang Valley region, Malaysia, discrete choice models are developed to analyze the behaviour and preference of business travellers towards the choice of conventional airline, budget airline, bus, car and train. The results reveal that the travelling destination, travel time, travel cost, safety and comfort are the significant determinants. The socio-economic factors of gender, race and monthly income are also found to be the influential factors. Additionally, the results of sensitivity analysis confirmed that the variation of the comfort level have a significant impact, i.e. 4.24% on the mode shift. The findings highlight beneficial information for the transport operators in improving their service´s planning.