Willingness to Fly during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine factors that influence a consumer's Willingness to Fly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous studies have explored Willingness to Fly in various situations, but none have used perceived stress and COVID-19 predictors. Six hundred and fifteen participants from the United States completed a survey on the platform MTurk in 2022. Validated scales were used to gather data on the selected parameters, namely the Cohen Perceived Stress Scale, Familiarity with Aviation Scale, Perceived COVID-19 threat scale, and Willingness to Fly scale. Exploratory Factor Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis, and Structural Equation Modeling were used to explore the data. Three of the six hypotheses were supported. One additional non-hypothesized path was discovered between perceived stress and COVID-19 threat. The model explained 50.7% of Willingness to Fly. The findings offer insight into how consumers still identify COVID-19 as a present threat despite the aviation industry's safeguards.