Development of a web‐based mobile airline ticketing model with usability features

Purpose – Development of mobile commerce (m‐commerce) environments that have user‐friendly features is important to accelerate the adoption of m‐commerce. The current research studies web‐based features that are crucial to the success of mobile air ticketing commerce. Design/methodology/approach – There are two phases involved. In the first phase, the current research develops a web‐based mobile airline ticketing (W‐MAT) model to study usability features necessary to perform mobile air ticketing commerce. Thirty‐six features are mapped and identified based on the W‐MAT model. In the second phase, the air ticketing web sites for 27 most popular airline companies and online air travel agencies are examined to analyze their existing implementation patterns on these 36 features. The pattern analysis is based on web site features analysis and web site versatility analysis. Findings – The analysis of web site features resulted in the development of an adoption feature pyramid that classified the 36 features into three categories. The analysis of web site versatility was based on multivariate cluster analysis that classified these 27 web sites into four groups. Practical implications – The findings on web site features and web site versatility analyses in the current research are beneficial to future m‐commerce airline companies and air travel agencies, mobile device developers, and air ticketing m‐commerce interface designers. Originality/value – The study concludes that the W‐MAT model‐based air ticketing features with usability emphasis are crucial to develop efficient mobile air ticketing web sites; and thereby, accelerating the adoption of m‐commerce for the air travel industry in the near future.