Patterns of US air transport across the economic unevenness of 2003-2013

This map summarizes the relative change in activity at 379 airports during the tumultuous economic period that lasted from 2003 to 2013 in the conterminous USA. Rather than treating airports only as individual nodes, the work identifies relative regional spatial change in airport activity based upon the combination of the percentage changes in three factors: departures, passenger levels, and available seats. The geographic results, calculated by kriging, show that the outcome over the period is not spatially uniform. In particular, the map shows that parts of the Rust Belt, Appalachia, and the Intermountain West fared relatively worse while the plains and coasts did somewhat better. The analysis expresses the fact that while footloose in the short-run, long-term adjustments in the airline industry, like those experienced across 2003-2013, did so in a spatially coherent way

Air transport liberalisation and airport dependency: developing a composite index

Air transport liberalisation in Europe has produced some major changes to the networks operated by airlines and the services available at airports. Within this context the degree of airport dependency in terms of market, spatial and temporal concentration is important to know from an economic geography and risk management perspective. A composite index called the Airport Dependency Index (ADI) is developed to measure airport dependency based on the concept of the relative Gini coefficient. Liberalisation has had varying impacts depending on the size and type of airport and so a comparison is made of the degree of dependency at a large sample of European airports using the ADI. The ADI has the potential to provide insight on the sustainability and worthiness of financing airport projects, and on whether airports should diversify further their activities by investing in the growth and expansion of their network

Airport catchment and leakage in a multi-airport region : the case of Harrisburg International

This paper presents a spatial analysis of the market area of Harrisburg International Airport (MDT) in south-central Pennsylvania using a Zip-code level spatial database of a sample of airport customers. Using a Geographic Information System and regression techniques, a description of MDT's market area is presented in relation to a variety of demographic and geographic variables. The results show clear patterns of possible airport substitution - particularly between MDT and Baltimore-Washington International Airport (BWI). These results are corroborated with a simple route-level regression analysis showing relative passenger levels at MDT versus BWI in relation to fare differences and other factors

Economic efficiency of residential water conservation programs in a Pennsylvania public water utility

This study examines the economic efficiency of implementing a residential water conservation program in a small Pennsylvania public water utility. Local demographic data and results from similar programs elsewhere were used to estimate potential water conservation for three programs: rebates for low-flow toilets, rebates for high-efficiency washing machines, and in-home water audits. Future water supply and wastewater treatment demand were estimated. The net present value of constructing, operating, and maintaining new capacity infrastructure (water supply, water storage tanks, and wastewater treatment plant capacity), as well as the costs of the conservation programs, was calculated for a range of scenarios that included future demand growth, construction costs, interest rates, and levels of participation in the conservation programs. Results indicate that investing in residential water conservation would be cost-effective for a small number of scenarios that generally combine higher growth rates, higher interest rates, higher construction costs, and relatively modest public participation in conservation. The results are affected by the timing of necessary supply-side investments relative to the most significant water conservation gains, the relatively inexpensive local water supply costs, and the relatively high local wastewater treatment costs. Water conservation might be cost-effective for a wider range of conditions in communities facing scarce and expensive water supply options

The fortunes of air transport gateways

The paper explores the idea that the fortunes of some gateway cities are changing as airlines use modern aircraft to respond to new market opportunities. It uses data on inter-city journeys between Australia and Asia to identify a hierarchy of gateway cities, and then shows how the connections between them has changed over the 2000-2013 period. Results show that secondary, and smaller, gateways in both Australia and Asia have played more important roles in passenger movements over this time. In Melbourne in particular, stronger growth in the demand for international travel in that city along with more use made of the smaller long-haul aircraft by airlines, has strengthened its role as a gateway city relative to Sydney. These results confirm that the geography of inter-continental air networks are changing which may have important implications for the air transport roles of some cities in the immediate future

A supply-side categorization of airports across global multiple-airport cities and regions

Cities and regions with multiple airports providing commercial air service are common across the globe. Within these regions, both airlines and consumers have various opportunities to provide air transport services on the one hand, and consume them on the other. While a literature addressing features of consumer behavior related to multiple airports and their regions has developed over the past two decades, very little research has taken a comprehensive global view of the regions themselves, and more specifically, of the assortment of component airports. The results of the present paper provide structure to the activities at airports within multiple airport cities and regions as of 2015. Using hierarchical cluster analysis, 131 airports in 53 global multiple airport regions are analyzed utilizing supply-side variables such as aspects of competition, routes, and aircraft capacities among others. The results show that the airports, identified from the literature, can be classified into six primary groups. Some of the groups confirm prior expectation, for example based, upon size. Yet other groups are, at least on the surface, a bit more eclectic. Moreover, combinations of airport type in individual cities and regions vary widely across geographies, pointing to the complexity of places and the industry. As global commercial aviation continues to change quickly along multiple dimensions, understanding the roles airports play, and the ways airlines use them becomes enhanced. Multiple airport regions will provide both opportunities and difficulties in navigating these changes