English Abstract
Abstract :
The airlines went through a period that was considered as highly difficult time during the year 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Lots of airlines stopped flying to most of their destinations as a result of local or international rules and regulations.
As business growing back slowly in the year 2021, the airlines were faced with tough decision on which destination to fly to that will make the greatest benefits for them. Bearing in mind that the air transportation industry is one of the most important industries to each country, being the mean of global transportation for people and goods that are sold and bought by businesses. This thesis is focused on the airlines industry, specifically passenger airlines, with an attempt to comprehend the industry and the main factors for airlines to choose a destination. The purpose of this thesis is to help airlines choosing the best destination among alternatives by identifying and understanding the factors that influences the airlines' decisions. This will help airlines to make the best decision in order to navigate through the tough time they went through due to COVID-19. With this, the destination selection considered as a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making problem for the purpose of this thesis. To reach the thesis purpose and objectives, the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach was used. To have a conclusive result, it was important to understand the basis on which the airlines choose a destination. Hence, the thesis has identified the criteria to choose a destination as Passengers Demand, Cost Drivers, Competition, and Health Measurements. The researcher met with airlines to identify the said criteria and their importance, then searched the web to gather data and analyze them. The set of alternative destinations selected for this study were Sydney, Hawaii, Buenos Aires, and Auckland. The thesis showed that Passengers' demand had the highest importance among other criteria taking 44% of the total weightage of the decision.
