Market shares on the rise, academic attention on the decline? A comprehensive review on low-cost airlines and their research challenges

IF 4.4 2区工程技术 Q2 BUSINESS

Research in Transportation Business and Management Pub Date : 2025-08-07 DOI:10.1016/j.rtbm.2025.101458

Xiaoqian Sun , Min Su , Sebastian Wandelt

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

In recent decades, low-cost carriers (LCCs) have reshaped the global aviation industry, attaining a significant market share of more than one third of all flights worldwide. Despite their increasing penetration, there has been a decline in the volume of academic research focusing specifically on LCCs in recent years, raising concerns about a potential gap between industry development and scholarly attention. This paper reviews the extant literature on LCCs, categorizing existing studies into seven major themes: general impact/competition, pricing strategies, efficiency, service quality dimensions, regulatory/policy considerations, airport-related aspects and others. Through our review of more than 300 related academic references, we develop a concise representation of the state of the art, identify key insights, and highlight areas where research has remained rather sparse. In addition, our study synthesizes critical directions for future research to address emerging challenges and opportunities for LCCs during this important era of air transportation.

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市场份额在上升，学术关注度在下降？对低成本航空公司及其研究挑战的全面回顾

近几十年来，低成本航空公司（lcc）重塑了全球航空业，占据了全球三分之一以上航班的重要市场份额。尽管它们的渗透程度越来越高，但近年来专门针对低成本航空公司的学术研究数量有所下降，这引发了人们对行业发展与学术关注之间潜在差距的担忧。本文回顾了关于低成本航空公司的现有文献，将现有研究分为七大主题：一般影响/竞争、定价策略、效率、服务质量维度、监管/政策考虑、机场相关方面等。通过对300多篇相关学术参考文献的回顾，我们对当前的研究现状进行了简明的描述，确定了关键的见解，并强调了研究仍然相当稀少的领域。此外，我们的研究综合了未来研究的关键方向，以解决低成本航空公司在这个重要的航空运输时代面临的新挑战和机遇。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Research in Transportation Business and Management Multiple-

CiteScore

7.10

自引率

8.30%

发文量

175

期刊介绍： Research in Transportation Business & Management (RTBM) will publish research on international aspects of transport management such as business strategy, communication, sustainability, finance, human resource management, law, logistics, marketing, franchising, privatisation and commercialisation. Research in Transportation Business & Management welcomes proposals for themed volumes from scholars in management, in relation to all modes of transport. Issues should be cross-disciplinary for one mode or single-disciplinary for all modes. We are keen to receive proposals that combine and integrate theories and concepts that are taken from or can be traced to origins in different disciplines or lessons learned from different modes and approaches to the topic. By facilitating the development of interdisciplinary or intermodal concepts, theories and ideas, and by synthesizing these for the journal''s audience, we seek to contribute to both scholarly advancement of knowledge and the state of managerial practice. Potential volume themes include: -Sustainability and Transportation Management- Transport Management and the Reduction of Transport''s Carbon Footprint- Marketing Transport/Branding Transportation- Benchmarking, Performance Measurement and Best Practices in Transport Operations- Franchising, Concessions and Alternate Governance Mechanisms for Transport Organisations- Logistics and the Integration of Transportation into Freight Supply Chains- Risk Management (or Asset Management or Transportation Finance or ...): Lessons from Multiple Modes- Engaging the Stakeholder in Transportation Governance- Reliability in the Freight Sector