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CHAPTER 6
Applying Market Research
to Airport Ground Access
This chapter focuses on the role of market research in planning public transportation services
to airports. After an overview of market research techniques, an approach is presented that uses
geographic and demographic information to better understand potential ground access markets.
The Role of Market Research
Market research is used in all sectors of today's economy to identify and target selected markets,
to gain a competitive edge, to classify and retain customers, and even to determine the lifetime value
of selected customer groups. With an ever-increasing number of products and services, the con-
sumer market has become highly fragmented. Increasingly, it has become important to identify
and target selected groups of customers rather than trying to serve the entire market (45).
In the same way, classifying airport users according to factors known to affect ground access
decisions can help airport managers understand how different types of public transportation
service will appeal to targeted customer groups. By providing a detailed understanding about
the access needs of airport users, market research can help airport managers plan successful pub-
lic transportation services. This chapter outlines a method for identifying, classifying, and under-
standing the airport user on the basis of his or her ground access trip to and from the airport.
Characteristics of the Airport Ground Access Market
The previous TCRP studies established that there is no single market for ground access ser-
vices to airports. Instead, there is a series of submarkets, or market segments, each of which has
distinct and documentable characteristics. Very often, it is necessary to create distinct services
for separate market segments; marketing, pricing, and promotion will usually vary by targeted
market segment. For example, at Japan's Narita Airport, three rail companies offer service at
three separate ticket price levels, while a limousine bus company caters to international visitors.
At London's Heathrow Airport, the original combination of a good rapid transit service plus
frequent buses was augmented by the addition of the higher priced Heathrow Express premium
rail service. In Paris, French decision makers are now determining the best strategy to add a new
premium CDG Express to the existing combination of commuter rail and specialty bus service
from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. In New York City and in Chicago, airport ground access
planners are examining the idea of adding additional, higher priced rail services to supplement
the present shared rail services to their airports.
To plan such services, market researchers typically use a two-step process: first, they examine
overall patterns to look for strong geographic markets; second, they apply a more fine-grained
demographic segmentation for the specific market identified.
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