Towards a maturity model for big data analytics in airline network planning

The evaluation, acquisition and use of newly available big data sources has become a major strategic and organizational challenge for airline network planners. We address this challenge by developing a maturity model for big data readiness for airline network planning. The development of the maturity model is grounded in literature, expert interviews and case study research involving nine airlines. Four airline business models are represented, namely full-service carriers, low-cost airlines, scheduled charter airlines and cargo airlines. The maturity model has been well received with seven change requests in the model development phase. The revised version has been evaluated as exhaustive and useful by airline network planners. The self-assessment of airlines revealed low to medium maturity for most domains. Organizational factors show the lowest average maturity, IT architecture the highest. Full-service carriers seem to be more mature than airlines with different business models. •A maturity model for big data analytics in airline network planning was designed.•A multiple case study with 9 airlines was used to evaluate the maturity model.•Eight airlines representing four business models did a self-assessment in the model.•Self-assessment yielded medium-to-low maturity levels.•Full-service carriers show higher maturity on strategic and organizational dimension.