Development Challenges of Secondary and Small Airports in California, Research Report 11-21

This study investigates the development of secondary and smaller airports in California. Low-Cost Carrier (LCC) business is growing at these airports because they offer reduced operating costs, and they have adequate capacity to help LCCs avoid battling with incumbent airlines at the large hubs for limited resources, such as gates. However, increased LCC aircraft operations at the secondary airports have led to significant noise impacts on the surrounding communities and this has been a challenge for the secondary airport operators. They have imposed operational curfews to limit the noise impacts, but this approach constrains the resident airlines that want to increase their traffic. As a result, some LCCs have begun to initiate flights out of the large hubs. Statistics from this study show that the LCCs have replaced the legacy airlines as the dominant air provider in the state. With their growing dominance, the LCCs will become more attractive to the large hub airports, and the secondary airports will face increased competition in retaining them. To retain those LCCs, the secondary airports must better understand how LCCs make investment decisions related to airport development. At the same time, they must better educate the LCCs about their airport needs

Air transport liberalisation in the European Union and its impact on development of the civil aviation sector in Poland

The objective of this paper is to present an overview of the process of air transport liberalisation within the European Community and its influence on development of the aviation market in Poland. The paper describes the stages of air transport liberalisation in the European Community and its implementation to the Polish market. The special focus is given to problems of existing effects of air transport liberalisation and perspectives of its development. The study primarily intends to examine market structure changes of the Polish civil aviation sector and air traffic dynamics over the years of Polish integration with the European Union, presenting the most up-to-date available statistics

Passenger Air Service in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula: Overview and Analysis

[Excerpt] Rural America needs safe, efficient, reliable, and accessible passenger air service. Federal government subsidies have long been necessary to assure that residents in smaller, less profitable markets have access to the nation’s transportation network. That access is necessary for a community’s economic health, is arguably a right of all taxpayers and residents, and is in public interest. But market forces within the aviation industry are today driving a restructuring that may curtail or eliminate service to many communities in the nation. And the present political climate raises a serious question about the federal government’s continued commitment to the nation’s rural air transportation system. This report focuses on the state of passenger air service in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula [U.P.]. The U.P. is among the most geographically remote areas in the eastern half of the United States. The region’s economic, social, and cultural institutions are increasingly related to a global marketplace. These depend, in varying degrees, on access to the national and global transportation network. Scheduled, commercial passenger air service is especially critical for this area too distant from passenger rail, without adequate commercial bus service, with few four-lane highways and very limited connection to the Interstate Highway system

The impact of hub hierarchy and market competition on airfare pricing in US hub-to-hub markets

Over the past years, full-service carriers in Europe have deployed multi-hub-and-spoke systems by joining alliances to exploit network economies. The concentration of flights on a small group of airports leads to the emergence of ‘fortress hubs’ and subsequently creates hub-to-hub markets in Europe reminiscent of the US aviation market. This paper explores the factors influencing the pricing behaviour of full-service carriers in European hub-to-hub markets. Drawing on a 2009 dataset containing route and airfare information, we establish an econometric model to estimate the impact of route structure, alliances, and market concentration on the pricing of European full-service carriers in these markets. Three types of hubs (i.e., primary, secondary and tertiary hubs) are hereby identified to investigate the route structure within the hub-to-hub network. The stepwise regression results suggest that alliances on routes connecting two primary hubs, market share inequality and competition from low-cost carriers influence average airfares of full-service carriers in the European hub-to-hub markets

The role of dedicated freighter aircraft in the provision of global airfreight services

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.In 2014, over 51 million tonnes of cargo, valued at over US$6.8 trillion, was flown around the world. Approximately 56% of this total (by global revenue tonne kilometres (RTKs)) was flown on dedicated freighter aircraft which were either manufactured specifically for this purpose or converted from passenger use. The remaining 44% (by total global RTK) travelled as belly-freight in the holds of passenger flights or on combi (combination) or QC (quick change) aircraft that can accommodate both passengers and freight. Although both sources of capacity offer the same basic service – the aerial carriage of time sensitive and/or high value-to-weight goods – they exhibit different cost structures, operating characteristics and spatial patterns of demand and supply. Using empirical data on the contemporary scale and scope of global freighter operations, this paper examines the role of dedicated freighter aircraft in the provision of global airfreight services and identifies a range of exogenous and internal factors which may affect the demand and supply side characteristics of all-cargo air services in the future