ADAPTATION STRATEGIES OF AIRLINE TRAVEL AGENCIES TO THE DYNAMICS OF AIRLINE INDUSTRY IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The role of airline travel agencies in a changing operational environment depends on their ability to adapt and survive in the airline travel industry. This paper examines the adaptation strategies airline travel agencies adopt to remain in business. Data for this paper was obtained through multi-stage sampling system that relied on first, the use of purposive sampling technique in the selection of the sampled locations. The second stage was the adoption of systematic sampling technique which involved the selection of the airline travel agencies in the selected locations. Thereafter, the questionnaire was administered to the managers of the selected travel agencies. The method of data analysis relied on both frequency tables and Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The results indicate that majority of the managers are males (66%) with 66.3% of the respondents having  their duration of length of service as air travel agents between 6-10 years. Furthermore, the main constraint affecting airline travel agency operations is the problem of e-commerce. The results of the PCA also reveal that management fees has a component loading of 0.897, transaction fees (0.883) and recharge card sales (0.800) are the three most dominant business diversification strategies adopted by the air travel agencies. These are the adaptation techniques employed by the agencies to survive in business. The paper therefore recommends that for business entities to remain afloat, they need to, among other things, diversify their business operations in order to increase their revenue base.