The Determination of the Factors Affecting Air Transportation Passenger Numbers

<p>So long as human beings are required to go between places, the civil aviation industry will always exist. In this study, a country-based examination has been applied to air passenger numbers. 50 countries are selected according to the highest rating of air transportation passenger numbers, gross domestic product (GDP), total population, and human development index (HDI) data. 28 of these countries are included in the analysis which is common in at least three of these rankings. The relationship between the four parameters is examined via correlation analysis. Thereafter, the related parameters were taken as independent variables in multiple linear regression analyses to determine the factors affecting passenger numbers. The results show that GDP and HDI plays a significant role in passenger numbers. Based on these significant relationships, dimension reduction is done by explanatory factor analysis mapping countries clearly. Exploring the similarities of countries, multidimensional scaling (MDS) is used. The best countries using passenger transportation are found as the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil, and Turkey via MDS configuration. Except for the United States, the reason these countries are found as the best according to passenger transportation is related to their geographical location which is not stated with the numbers.</p>