Cost savings from trajectory deviations in the European air space

Air transport deregulation has lead to an increase of air traffic, together with a reduction of air fares. Air fare reduction has narrowed operational margins of airlines, bringing financial and employment instability. This has brought airlines to pay increasing attention to flying costs reduction. Two important components of flying costs airlines can try to cut modifying the planned flight are en route charges and operational costs. We rely on Demand Data Repository (DDR2) data to calculate deviations from planned flight trajectories to analyse the extent to what airlines try to cut operational costs making shorter flights than planned if possible, and cut en route charges providing a planned flight with lower en route charges than the planned flight. Our findings show that there is no generalised strategy among airlines to reduce en-route charges asking for deviations of the planned route. On the other hand, airlines are achieving savings of operational costs regularly. Higher savings per nautical mile are obtained in night flights, with longer planned distance and operated by low cost carriers.     

The impacts of high-speed trains on British economic geography: a study of the UK’s InterCity 125/225 and its effects

The arrival of high-speed trains (HSTs) leads to unprecedented time-space effects, potentially assisting face-to-face contacts in knowledge-generating process, yet its wider spatial-economic impacts are still open to debate. This research attempts to fill in this gap with empirical evidence by studying the inter-regional impacts of upgraded British InterCity 125/225 on British economic geography over 30 years. The six study routes of London-outbound trains serving major railways stations in 26 local authorities were selected as units of analysis, with the observation of differential effects both between HSTs and non-HSTs towns and among each group of towns, to understand time-space effects of InterCity 125/225 whose potential impacts on local economic strength and knowledge intensive development. The key findings suggest that the differential HST effects on British economic geography could be classified into three influential zones, namely 1-h, 2-h, and over-2-h towns. HST has had substantial and demonstrable effects in aiding this transition within a 2-h travel limit of London, thus helping to generate renewed economic growth, but that the effects have not been automatic or universal. Regarding future British HST policy, the implications arising from this study is that cities connected to a new HST could seize opportunities which non-HST cities will not be able to do so, but this is not a zero-sum situation. Instead, it involves a national strategy to develop a hierarchical network with HST between London and key regional hubs, well integrated at these hubs with intra-regional transport systems. This indicates a strong case for a finer-grained and deeper probing analysis at an intra-regional level of the potential for rail improvement as an agent of change in city-region development. We hope to report further on this in a subsequent paper.     

An airline's management strategies in a competitive air transport market

Over the last decade, the demand for domestic and international flights in Korea has increased substantially. To meet the strong flight demands, several low cost carriers have begun to offer flight services. In addition, full service carriers have been motivated to establish their own subsidiary low cost carriers to maintain their market share against rival low cost carriers. This paper studies the management strategies of three kinds of airlines - full service carrier, its subsidiary low cost carrier and rival low cost carrier - based on game theory in the competitive air transport market. Each airline is assumed to act as a player and chooses strategies regarding airfare, flight frequency, and the number of operating aircrafts for specific routes while maximizing its own profits. Demand leakages between the airlines are considered in the flight demand function according to the selected strategies of all airlines. Through various game situations reflecting realistic features, this study provides managerial insights that can be applied in the competitive air transport market.     

Is increasing aircraft size common practice of airlines at congested airports?

If the overall demand for air transport grows, but additional airport capacity is not available at congested airports, we could assume that airlines will offer flights with more seats in order to cope with the demand. An analysis of frequency and average seat capacity developments at congested, and not yet congested airports, has shown that the hypothesis of bigger aircraft being used in congested situations is valid in most instances, although not at all airports. The objective of this paper is to report on an analysis of the development of average seat capacity at congested airports, in contrast to the situation at not yet congested airports, and to find out the reasons for airlines increasing the number of seats at congested airports, by means of a statistical model using variables including the degree of airport congestion and average flight distance.     

The effects of global alliances on international flight frequencies: Some evidence from Italy

We collect half-yearly data on nonstop flight frequencies offered by carriers on routes originating from Italian regions to European countries in the period 1998–2010. We find that, as the share of flights belonging to global alliances increases, the number of flights offered by airlines simultaneously expands, especially in the case of full-service carriers. Moreover, there is also evidence that the number of global alliances has a positive impact on flight supply.     

An analysis of the greenhouse gas emissions profile of airlines flying the Australian international market

International commercial flights (with the exception of flights between countries in European Union including Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein) are currently not subject to greenhouse gas emission reduction regulation. To formulate effective and efficiency policy to manage greenhouse gas emissions from air transport, policy makers need to determine the emissions profiles of all airlines currently flying into their country or region. In this paper, we use 2012 data on airlines' aircraft characteristics, passenger load and cargo load (obtained from statistics reported by Australian Government Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics) to estimate the volume and carbon efficiency on each international route flying to and from Australia. This is the first study to use actual passenger and cargo load data to determine the greenhouse gas (specifically CO₂) efficiency of airlines operating in the Australian international aviation market. Airlines' CO₂ emission profile is dependent on many factors including but not limited to the aircraft used, payload, route taken, weather conditions. Our results reveal that the airlines’ CO₂ emission profile is not only dependent on the aircraft used and the number of passengers but also the amount of cargo on each flight.     

A tale of airline competition: When full-service carriers undercut low-cost carriers fares

The pricing of low-cost carriers (LCCs) compared with traditional airlines has been extensively investigated since their inception in the air transport market. Abundant empirical evidence attests that, on average, LCCs' fares (per km) are lower than those usually offered by full-service carriers (FSCs). Such literature, however, paid virtually no attention to the conditions under which LCCs lose their convenience compared to traditional airlines. The purpose of this study is to investigate the occurrence of LCCs sometimes offering higher fares than FSCs on competing flights. By using a dataset expressly collected for this purpose, we are able to quantify its frequency and suggest some possible explanations. These findings concur to cast some questions on the widely held preconception of vertical differentiation between LCCs' and FSCs’ offered services. Further research will be needed in order to understand the relative weight of the suggested factors.     

A community evaluation of Essential Air Services

Because the Essential Air Service (EAS) is a controversial federal program, a debate regarding its rehabilitation options and even its complete termination has been on the political agenda for more than a decade. For the beneficiaries of the program, most notably communities receiving subsidized air services and regional airlines supplying these services, EAS flights increase the accessibility of small and remote communities. For those people defending low government expenditures and free markets, EAS flights are a typical example of public intervention and wasteful government spending. In addition, increasing federal appropriations, rising per passenger subsidies, and the growing number of communities asking for subsidized air services have generated public attention, resulting in calls for improvements to enhance the efficiency of the program. Using Web-based survey data gathered from a pool of 95 city officials representing 56 EAS communities, this study aimed at contributing to the debate by attempting to provide evidence regarding how EAS communities perceived the importance of EAS flights to their communities, how they evaluated the then-current state of EAS flights, how they locally supported EAS flights, and how they assessed the possible rehabilitation options. The results of the survey revealed that EAS communities (1) assigned a high importance to EAS flights but not as high an importance to creating more jobs, improving the quality of education, and improving the quality of health services; (2) believed that the frequency of the flights was at the right level and that the airfares were expensive; (3) undertook marketing efforts to increase awareness of the flights, to attract air carriers to their communities, and to implement market studies for determining the potential of the flights; and (4) did not believe that rehabilitation options, such as employing alternative transportation modes, using smaller aircrafts, and consolidating EAS flights, would work, but they supported awarding longer-term EAS contracts.     

Airline and railway integration

Most of the transport literature only looks at mode alternatives in competition with each other, rather than exploring the potential for cooperation. This paper examines this possibility by making the case for aircraft and high speed train (HST) substitution under conditions of intermodal integration. In the model suggested, airlines use railway services as additional spokes in their network of services from a hub airport to complement and substitute for existing aircraft services. Airlines benefit from the slots that are freed and they can support mode substitution. Society gains from the social and economic benefits of better integrated transport services at a lower environmental cost. This paper examines this model of integration at Heathrow airport against the background of UK air transport policy and assesses the benefits and limitations of it. The conclusion reached is that some railway infrastructure should also be seen as part of the air transport infrastructure.     

Assessing the impacts of aviation liberalisation on tourism: Some methodological considerations derived from the Moroccan and Tunisian cases

At a time when the liberalisation of air transport is increasingly being promoted as a means to induce the growth of the tourism business, it is striking that there is little evidence to suggest that such liberalisation has indeed led to a growth in tourism. Furthermore, the evidence is usually restricted to the impacts of sole low-cost airlines on tourist destinations newly served by such airlines. In contrast to various ideological or naïve statements, this paper shows that assessing the relationship between liberalised air markets and trends in tourism is challenging. On the transport side, aviation liberalisation is rarely considered as a dimension that can be measured accurately; similar protected markets are not considered for comparison; and trends in charter flights are neglected. On the tourist side, broad definitions of so-called tourists are usually considered and include immigrants visiting their home country; nights spent are neglected, despite a possible trend in declining length of stay; and substitution between places is usually disregarded, as are the long-term effects.