A method for reducing information asymmetry in destination–airline relationships

We propose a measure of business risk in air travel demand at the route level that can reduce information asymmetry during route development negotiations between tourism destinations and airlines. Aviation-exposed risk (AER) conveys information about the level of uncertainty with regard to air travel demand from an airline’s perspective. Using AER, tourism destinations and air service development teams can evaluate their risks from the perspective of the airline and its network. From there, an assessment can be made as to the value of air services in certain circumstances, including whether a direct underwrite or risk share between airlines and destinations is viable and necessary. By applying a portfolio analysis to an airline’s network, we find evidence that AER does indeed mimic the actual capacity distribution of the network. This provides support for AER as a useful risk measure to be used in practice.     

Airport–airline interaction: the impact of low-cost carriers on two European airports

This paper uses case studies to look at the impact of low-cost airlines on two European airports. Low-cost airlines continue to exert an influence in air transport markets and small airports face pressures to compete for their business. The low-cost model motivates airlines to negotiate contracts that significantly reduce aeronautical revenues, leaving airports to compensate by seeking commercial revenues from the increase in passengers. This has consequences for the airports, their passengers and the relationship between the airport and its existing operators. It is found that it is important for airport management to see both passengers and airlines as customers and to understand the resultant revenue streams, before negotiating preferential contracts with low-cost carriers.     

Air deregulation in China and its impact on airline competition 1994–2012

China’s air transportation has experienced rapid growth and major reforms in the past three decades, some of which have been partially successful and are still ongoing today. The paper aims to analyze China’s air deregulation experience over the last two decades and its impact on airline competition from a geographical perspective. After the establishment of the “Big Three” in 2002, the paper reveals that there has been a trade-off between the extent of deregulation and airline competition in China because the central government has tended to strengthen the “Big Three” rather than totally open the market to private and locally owned airlines. The paper uses each airline group as the basic unit of analysis and reveals that (1) the air market has been more concentrated in the “Big Three” as a result of the process of air deregulation; (2) airline competition in over two thirds of the airports and one half of the routes has increased in the last 18 years, but the core airports and trunk routes are chiefly dominated by the “Big Three”. The peripheral airports and thin routes have been operated by private and locally owned airlines; and (3) regionally, airline competition has occurred in most airports of the eastern region, and it is more intense than in the central and western regions. But even here, competition in the eastern region has however decreased in 1994–2012. The three main contributions of the paper are: (1) the use of two measures of competition in the airline market; (2) the analysis of the historical evolution of competition; and (3) an understanding the role of the geography of competition in the Chinese airline market.     

Air accessibility and growth – The economic effects of a capacity expansion at Vienna International Airport

We use an econometric endogenous growth model to estimate the impact of air accessibility on GDP and investment growth. This is done in a dynamic panel system estimation framework for the EU-15 between 1993 and 2006. The results are then used to predict the economic effects of an increase in capacity at the Vienna International Airport using actual forecasts of the required information set. We find a GDP elasticity of air accessibility of 0.014 and an investment elasticity of 0.05 for our sample. Given the official passenger forecast this would lead to additional GDP growth in Austria of accumulated 0.81% based on the values of the restricted scenario (no third runway). In a more conservative forecast scenario of 3% annual passenger growth, a third runway is projected to increase GDP by 0.2% by 2040.     

Exploring causality in trade and air passenger travel relationships: the case of Asia-Pacific, 1980–2010

This paper explores the potential of heterogeneous Granger analysis in transport geography research by applying this method to a specific case of the often complex and potentially reciprocal linkages between the deployment of transport infrastructures and spatial economic development: the linkages between rising intra-regional volumes of trade and air passenger traffic in Asia-Pacific. Although conceptual and empirical linkages between both indicators can be assumed based on previous research, relatively little is known about the actual causality. Using heterogeneous Time Series Cross Section Granger causality analysis for the period 1980–2010, we explore the presence of four ‘causality scenarios’ amongst different country-pairs: (1) there is no co-evolution, implying that both patterns develop independently (e.g. Japan–Australia); (2) there is ‘real’ co-evolution in that both patterns influence each other through feedback loops (e.g. South Korea–Philippines); (3) air passenger traffic is facilitated by trade (e.g., South Korea–Philippines); or (4) trade is facilitated by air passenger traffic (e.g. Australia–Malaysia). Some tentative interpretations of this heterogeneity are offered.     

Determinants of passengers’ choice of airline check-in services: A case study of American,Australian, Korean,and Taiwanese passengers

This paper investigates factors that influence whether air travelers’ choose conventional counter or self-service check-in, including kiosk and web check-in. It uses data collected from American, Australian, Korean, and Taiwanese passengers. The data suggests that a passenger’s choice of check-in service is strongly dependent on nationality and previous experiences of checking-in; i.e. a cultural bias exists in the behavior of passengers using airline check-in services. Taiwanese passengers prefer to use the conventional counter check-in service but Korean, Australian and American air travelers use more self-service check-in facilities. The analysis also highlights that passengers’ perceptions of the attributes of the check-in service significantly determine their choice of check-in option.     

Hello major airports,goodbye regional airports? Recent changes in European and US low-cost airline airport choice

Low-cost carriers (LCCs) are assumed to adopt a certain business model in which an important element is the concentration of services at secondary and regional airports. Yet, evidence suggests that increasingly LCCs also establish themselves in what can be considered the major airports. This raises the question of whether LCCs are changing their business model and adopting practices associated with the traditional, incumbent airlines, and if so what might cause such change. Based on categorization of airports and using OAG flight data the US and European markets are investigated. Focusing on several LCCs, with more attention given to Southwest and Ryanair, their profile of operation with respect to the type of airports used is analysed for a period of between 15 and 25 years and up to 2015. The results clearly indicate that LCCs are increasing their operations from major airports, while generally continuing their growth and expansion strategy. The main implication of which is the increase in direct competition between LCCs and traditional airlines while the impacts of this change on the smaller airports are not clear yet and need to be investigated further.     

Diminishing effects of location? Some evidence from Swiss municipalities, 1950–2000

This paper analyzes how location has affected, in the second half of the twentieth century, the population growth of 2889 municipalities in Switzerland. The analysis demonstrates the temporal relativity of location attributes, even for small territorial divisions, such as the Swiss cantons. However, we also show that, both absolute and relative location attributes have weakened over time as population growth predictors, apparently due to improving road infrastructures, and growing motorization. The study has been made possible by a detailed historical population and accessibility database available for Swiss municipalities. To the best of our knowledge, no database of such scope and quality is available for any other European country.     

Truck movement across the Canada–US border: The effects of 9/11 and other factors

The objective of this study is to isolate the effects of the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the subsequent stringent border security regime on the levels of truck movement across the Canada–US border. A time series analysis, within an econometric system that rendered stationarity and used the seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) estimator, was performed to model these movements. The analysis represents a natural experiment on the variability of cross-border truck movements in the aftermath of 9/11. Annual truck crossing data over the period 1972–2011, disaggregated by the country of registration (US and Canada) and Canadian jurisdictions (provinces) were used in the analysis. The results indicate that in general, 9/11 have had a negative effect on the cross-border movement of Canadian and US trucks, but the impacts were more pronounced in the case of the US trucks. Other interesting results include an increase in the number of US trucks during the period that followed the last US financial crisis. The results also illustrate the importance of GDP in explaining the observed truck movements across the Canada–US border.     

Residential self-selection and travel behaviour: What are the effects of attitudes,reasons for location choice and the built environment?

In studies of the effect of built environment on travel behaviour, residential self-selection is an increasingly important issue. Self-selection implies that households locate in places that provide them with conducive conditions for their preferred way of travelling. In these studies, it is assumed that attitudes toward different travel modes are an important factor in location choice, and that households are unconstrained in choosing their preferred residential location. This paper challenges these assumptions, by distinguishing between the more passive travel attitude and travel considerations as a deliberate reason to locate in a certain place. Based on a survey among 355 recently relocated households in Dutch TOD locations, we find that the association between travel attitude and residential environment is weak, and that the association between travel attitude and travel as a factor in location choice is moderate at best. Multivariate models show that both travel attitude and travel being a reason for location choice influence travel mode use, suggesting that travel attitude is insufficient to fully reflect self-selection processes. In comparison to other travel modes, train travel is most influenced by the fact whether residents deliberately chose to live in an environment conducive to using this mode.     

Reprint of “Quality management,environmental management maturity,green supply chain practices and green performance of Brazilian companies with ISO 14001 certification: Direct and indirect effects”

This study aims to test a new conceptual model based on the relationship between quality management (QM), environmental management maturity (EMM), adoption of external practices of green supply chain management (GSCM) (green purchasing and collaboration with customers) and green performance (GP) with data from 95 Brazilian firms with ISO 14001. To our knowledge, such links and relationships are not simultaneously identified and tested in the literature. The results indicate the validation of all of the research hypotheses. This paper highlights that an improvement in green performance will require attention to quality management, environmental management maturity, and green supply chain.     

Place,context and activity–travel behavior: Introduction to the special section on geographies of activity–travel behavior

This special issue addresses a number of research gaps in existing literature concerning the geographies of activity–travel behavior. We argue that places shape individuals' engagement in activities and trip making behavior, and in return users of different transport modes value and experience places differently. Furthermore, interactions between place and activity–travel behavior vary in different geographical, social and weather contexts. This introductory paper will develop these arguments and introduce the papers included in this special issue.     

Impacts of the Air France–KLM merger for airlines,airports and air transport users

Excess capacity and low returns have led to consolidation and mergers in the airline market. The joining of KLM and Air France within the SkyTeam alliance has been the most dramatic of these events. This paper looks at the probable effects of the merger on the various players that are immediately affected; airports, airlines and travelers. It does this using the AIR Transport Network COmpetition Model. The analysis finds, in particular, that fears that Schiphol may lose out as a result of the merger may be exaggerated, especially when high-speed rail is added to the mix of modes considered.     

Regional transport and its association with tuberculosis in the Shandong province of China, 2009–2011

Human mobility has played a major role in the spread of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis (TB) through transportation; however, its pattern and mechanism have remained unclear. This study used transport networks as a proxy for human mobility to generate the spatial process of TB incidence. It examined the association between TB incidence and four types of transport networks at the provincial level: provincial roads, national roads, highways, and railways. Geographical information systems and geospatial analysis were used to examine the spatial distribution of 2217 smear-positive TB cases reported between 2009 and 2011 in the Shandong province. The study involved factors such as population density and elevation difference in conjunction with the types of transport networks to predict the disease occurrence in space. It identified spatial clusters of TB incidence linked not only with transport networks of the regions but also differentiated by elevation. Our research findings provide evidence of targeting populous regions with well-connected transport networks for effective surveillance and control of TB transmission in Shandong.     

Does a Terroir Product Tell the Same Story to Tourists,Day‐trippers and Local Consumers? The Moderating Role of Variety‐seeking Tendency and Perceived Authenticity

The issue of segmentation of the culinary tourism market is central for local economic actors because many products and activities address several marketing targets, including tourists and residents. This research shows that the assessment of the attributes of a terroir cheese is not altered by the consumer's tourist status. In contrast, taking into account the underlying motivations behind culinary tourism, an individual variable (the variety‐seeking tendency) and a variable related to the product (its perceived authenticity) appear as relevant segmentation criteria for such a culinary tourism product. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hungry for Growth? Small and Medium‐sized Tourism Enterprise (SMTE) Business Ambitions,Knowledge Acquisition and Industry Engagement

Differences are identified between the preferred information and learning channels of small and medium‐sized tourism enterprise (SMTE) proprietors, who have an interest in business operations (growers) or who have relatively less interest (lifestylers). Lifestylers sign up frequently to tourism industry associations, whereas growers have a tendency to join generic business groupings. The most common information for both groups is marketing related, and intensive use is made of online information to support day‐to‐day business operations. In aggregate, SMTE proprietors are avid information seekers, attaching importance to the advice provided from experienced and trusted sources. Growers proactively gather information about general management as well as tourism‐specific knowledge. Adopting a ‘one size fits all’ approach to providing information for the SMTE sector is unlikely to be effective. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.