The Role of Secondary Airports for Today's Low-Cost Carrier Business Models: The European Case

One of the core characteristics of Low-Cost Carriers (LCCs) is their use of secondary and regional airports. However, nothing is fixed as the market constantly evolves and carriers modify their strategies in order to achieve growth. This paper uses the examples of Ryanair, easyJet and Norwegian to show how changes to LCC business models are affecting secondary airports across Europe. Using a content analysis, this paper first describes how airport choice factors for LCCs have evolved over the last 10 years. This is followed by a data analysis of historical and current airline network capacity to identify how LCC traffic at secondary airports is developing. The paper finds that cost, demand and efficiency are still the most important criteria for LCCs when choosing an airport to operate from. However, it also identifies that LCCs have become more interested in serving business passengers, which is why they are increasingly using primary airports (accounting for 58% of their recent capacity growth). Through the use of a selection of case airports it is finally concluded that the evolution of LCCs increases competition between primary and secondary gateways. In most cases, secondary airports are losing a significant amount of LCC traffic and only sustain flights to less important destinations. This research puts into question the future importance of secondary airports for LCCs. As not all airports have been impacted by the hybridisation of LCCs to the same extent, the results are not equally applicable to the whole European airport industry

Stepping Up and Stepping Out of COVID-19: New Challenges for Environmental Sustainability Policies in the Global Airline Industry

The allure for businesses to jettison short-term costly processes, regulatory demands and green business practices (GBPs) in the turbulent times of COVID-19 remains sky high. Although GBPs and eco-friendly policies deliver results in the long term in terms of market competitiveness (MC), in many industries firms have sought to jettison well-rooted practices in the face of the existential threats stemming from COVID-19. In this paper, we examine the new contemporary challenges of adopting and implementing environmental sustainability policies in the global airline industry in the wake of COVID-19. The analysis sheds light on firms’ level sustainability initiatives such as upgrading to environmentally friendly aircraft and offsetting emission footprint, and institutional initiatives such as the European Union Emissions Trading System and the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for Aviation. Our analysis demonstrates that some airlines and industrial bodies sought to sidestep environmentally friendly commitments and practices to overcome new challenges such as cost pressures, survival threat and deprioritising environmental sustainability initiatives. We establish and examine the implications of the analysis

Impact of COVID-19 on air transport passenger markets: Examining evidence from the Chinese market

COVID-19 is an unprecedented situation and its impacts are expected to be significant, especially for the travel and tourism industry. This study contains a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of air transport capacity, traffic and revenue changes in domestic and international markets involving China with a focus on airlines, route networks and airports during the Covid-19 pandemic. Data from OAG and MIDT were used to analyse the Chinese domestic market, the traffic China to Europe and China to the rest of Asia. The analysis found that domestic markets, those served by well financed/funded air carriers, those less exposed to the highest rates of Covid-19 infection and those that are seeing the least restrictive lockdown and travel measures have been least impacted by the pandemic and are those that are most likely to rebound first. Less well financed/funded carriers whose networks are focussed on international markets, premium traffic and discretionary leisure travel have been found to be impacted most by the pandemic and are those that are likely to take the longest to recover. In terms of Chinese airports, performance has varied according to airlines served, characteristic of the airport/city, and the severity of the outbreak