A factor analysis of air passenger reactions to skyjacking and airport security measures as related to personal characteristics and alternatives to flying

Administered a 28-item questionnaire to 127 airline passengers at Columbus International Airport, Ohio, which was then factor analyzed and rotated to orthogonal hierarchical structure. Results indicate that passengers did respond differentially to items concerning their reactions to hypothetical skyjacking situations and airport security measures when items were couched in terms of willingness to fly as contrasted to probability of actually taking a given flight. Subgroups were differentiated by 1 or more of the following variables: age, sex, enjoyment of flying, distance to destination, and the extent of their dislike for buses. Other than buses, preferred modes of travel appeared relatively unrelated to favorableness or unfavorableness of passenger reactions.