Selection of In-Flight Duty-Free Product Suppliers Using a Combination Fuzzy AHP, Fuzzy ARAS, and MSGP Methods

Abstract

Over a billion people travel by air all over the world every year, and there are many in-flight retailing opportunities for the airline industry. This paper proposes a novel integration fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP), fuzzy additive ratio assessment (FARAS), and multisegment goal programming (MSGP) methods to select the best supplier for in-flight duty-free product in airline industry. The advantage of this proposed method is that it allows decision makers (DMs) to set multisegment aspiration vague levels considering both the qualitative and quantitative criteria for supplier selection simultaneously. To the best of our knowledge, a simultaneous consideration of qualitative and quantitative criteria for supplier selection of in-flight duty-free product has never been applied under the airline retail industry context. This research will fill into the gaps of supplier selection in in-fight duty-free product for airline industry. The integrated model is illustrated by an example in an airline company in Taiwan.