Examination of individual preferences for safety and security in airports. A choice modelling experiment

There is an increasing concern for safety and security in an aviation context, due to heightened terrorism threats and other security scares recently. The paper aims to evaluate the factors affecting visitors’ preferences for alternative policy initiatives in the field of security and safety in an aviation context. The paper makes use of stated choice experiments to evaluate individual preferences. This paper presents the findings from a homogeneous preference specification of a stated preferences discrete choice modelling experiment. The empirical findings indicate that they hold positive and statistically significant preferences for a wider disclosure of security related information, while at the same time; they do not mind longer waiting times in order to go through security checks. This is certainly opposite to our initial hypotheses. Finally, respondents expressed negative and statistically significant preferences for higher prices (security surcharges). In other words, they do not want to pay for higher security and safety measures at an aviation context. The paper offers interesting recommendations to decision-makers, managers and practitioners in the aviation field.