Willingness to pay for economy class seat selection: From a Chinese air consumer perspective

Airline ancillary services play an increasingly important role in the airline industry. Ancillary revenues account for more than 40% of the total revenue for airlines like Spirit, VivaAerobus, and Frontier (Sorensen, 2018, p.5). However, current academic research has addressed this practical topic on only a limited scale. Almost no research has focused on the ancillary services of the Chinese aviation market. It is likely that in the future, China will outdistance the United States as the world's largest aviation market, indicating the importance of the Chinese market. Accordingly, this article focuses on one of the airline ancillary services, namely, paying extra to choose economy class seats. A mixed-methods approach (combining individual interviews and an online survey) was used to explore factors influencing Chinese air consumers' willingness to pay for economy class seat selection (ECSS). Our findings show that both intrinsic cues (e.g., length of trip, seat comfort and convenience) and extrinsic cues (e.g., payment and consumption situations) have a significant impact on Chinese airline consumers' willingness to pay for ECSS. The results of this research could contribute to enhancing the current ancillary services literature, uncovering insights about Chinese airline consumers and providing implications to the marketing of airline ancillary services. •Studying influential factors for purchasing economy class seat selection in China•Low familiarity and involvement with economy class seat selection in China•The longer the flight, the higher the willingness to pay for premium seats.•The higher the seat comfort and convenience, the higher the willingness to pay.•Payment, consumption situations, and seat selection time affect willingness to pay.