From traditional to professional Air Navigation Service Provider: A typology of European ANSP business models

This paper proposes a business model typology based on factor analysis of mixed data sourced from the 2016 Air Traffic Management Cost Effectiveness (ACE) benchmarking report, European air navigation service provider (ANSP) websites and annual reports. It provides ANSP management insight into the key strategic business model decisions to be made, their resulting models as well as how these business model decisions contribute to ATM/CNS profits. The findings suggest that ANSPs can benefit from increasing both their level of corporatisation as level of outsourcing. The paper can be used by ANSP managers to position themselves within the European air navigation services (ANS) landscape and as a discussion starter for future business model developments; or by ANS customers to better understand the strategic objectives of the ANSPs.     

Lessons learnt from the market for air freight ground handling at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol

On 16 April 2013, the European Parliament adopted a new, amended airport ground handling Regulation, which will replace the old Directive 96/67 EC on ground handling services. The new Regulation will further open up European airports for competition on the ground handling market. Even long before the introduction of Directive 96/67/EC, Amsterdam Airport has had a liberalised handling regime. Against the background of the further liberalisation of the European ground handling market, this paper investigates the characteristics of the open ground handling market for air cargo at Amsterdam Airport and the lessons that can be learnt from the Amsterdam experience. We find that an open handling market brings greater freedom of choice for airlines and lower handling fees. However, we do not see any (serious) market failure for the airport that would justify intervention by the market regulator, by limiting the number of handlers for example.     

Do the Gulf airlines distort the level playing field?

Gulf State aviation repeats a national development model previously applied in Southeast Asia. Developing national carriers and airport infrastructure together supports tourism, technology transfer and economic growth. Gulf airports leverage geographic advantage, but greater benefits flow from the absence of curfews or expansion constraints. Comparing Boeing B777-300 unit costs for one-stop journeys between Hong Kong and four European cities via Dubai, Frankfurt, London, and Amsterdam finds that the longer Dubai journey absorbs any cost advantage from through journeys on wide-body aircraft. Configuration impacts unit cost. Emirates configurations match Lufthansa, British Airways and KLM. Qatar Airways and Etihad match less dense Asian carriers. Finally, lower airport charges persist for the Gulf airports despite the introduction of transfer passenger fees in 2016.     

Fuel burn rates of commercial passenger aircraft: variations by seat configuration and stage distance

Aircraft fuel consumption is a very large component of airline costs. Fuel burn is also very important because it is highly correlated with emissions and contributes directly to transport externalities. This paper calibrates fuel burn in kilos per seat per nautical mile for aircraft using the EMEP/EEA aircraft inventory database. We then employ the model with OAG flight schedule data to evaluate fuel burn by flight routes and aircraft types at a global scale. The paper shows comparative fuel use among different distance based markets as well as among a variety of routes in the long-haul market. The results show geographical heterogeneity of fuel burn rates among a variety of routes, while controlling for seat configuration and stage distance. The paper finds that stage lengths centered on 1500–2000 NM have the lowest fuel burn rates under current technology, fleet composition, and seat configuration. These findings, together with comments on the viability of long range flights provide better understandings not only for the carbon taxation debates but also for operational efficiency of current aviation markets. The lower rates for moderate distance flights seems to favor networks without extreme links, and supports the use of a hub connection scheme.     

Concentration and the formation of multi-port gateway regions in the European container port system: an update

The European container port system features a unique blend of different port types and sizes combined with a vast economic hinterland. This paper provides an update of the detailed container traffic analysis developed by Notteboom (1997) by extending it to the period 1985–2008 and to 78 container ports. The paper also aims at identifying key trends and issues underlying recent developments in the European container port system. These trends include the formation of multi-port gateway regions, changes in the hinterland orientation of ports and port regionalization processes. While the local hinterland remains the backbone of ports’ traffic positions, a growing demand for routing flexibility fuels competition for distant hinterlands between multi-port gateway regions. The prevailing assumption that containerisation would lead to further port concentration is not a confirmed fact in Europe: the European port system and most of its multi-port gateway regions witness a gradual cargo deconcentration process. Still, the container handling market remains far more concentrated than other cargo handling segments in the European port system, as there are strong market-related factors supporting a relatively high cargo concentration level in the container sector.     

A productivity comparison of the world's major airlines

This paper measures and compares productivity and unit cost of the world's 23 major airlines using yearly panel data (1986–1993). An extensive effort was expended to put together a reliable database. These data are then used to accomplish the following: first, unit cost per unit of aggregate output is measured and compared. The effect of input price changes on the unit costs are also examined. Second, the ‘gross’ Total Factor Productivity (TFP) is measured and compared. In order to compare true productive efficiency across airlines and over time, a ‘residual’ TFP index is computed after removing effects of the variables beyond managerial control such as average stage length and composition of outputs. Log-linear TFP level, and TFP growth rate regressions are used to accomplish this task. Our results show that:

1. (a) during the sample period (1986–1993), the major European carriers and the carriers in newly industrialized countries in Asia have achieved significantly higher productivity growth than their North American counterparts;

2. (b) as a result, the productivity gap between North American and other carriers have diminished significantly;

3. (c) however, on average, the North American carriers still enjoy higher productive efficiency than the carriers in Asian NICs and European carriers, but the gap is closing very rapidly; and

4. (d) it is observed that, over time, the productive efficiency of carriers competing in the same markets tends to converge.

Finally, Asian NIC carriers clearly enjoy unit cost advantages over other major carriers. Our results show that European aviation liberalization which began in 1987 appears to have produced substantial productivity gains.     

Customer perspective on overbooking: The failure of customers to enjoy their reserved services,accidental or intended?

Overbooking is widely applied in the service industry to hedge against undesirable situations, such as cancellations and no-shows. However, during the implementation of overbooking, service providers may turn down some customers when the number of arrivals exceeds their capacity on the target date. Therefore, this paper examines overbooking from the customers' perspective to offer them a clear perception on the possibility for their reservations to be denied by the service provider. By establishing a Stackelberg model between a service provider and an online travel agency, we explore how optimal overbooking strategy is developed by the service provider. Afterward, by analyzing the obtained optimal overbooking pad, we calculate the probabilities of denied service under different levels of monetary compensation that is paid to denied customers. A higher monetary compensation guarantees a higher chance of successful service. This paper also provides customers with some reference when booking services.     

Benchmarking the noise-oriented efficiency of major European airports: A directional distance function approach

The EU Environmental Noise Directive (END) requires member states to produce noise action plans for all major airports every five years. Using that data, this paper employs a directional distance function approach to estimate noise-oriented efficiency of 60 European airports between 2006 and 2011. Technical change is calculated using the Malmquist productivity index. The results indicate that European airports have improved their noise efficiency between 2006 and 2011, and some degree of convergence in noise performance across countries is seen. Larger aircraft size is linked to better noise performance. Inefficient airports would also benefit from more stringent night movement limits.     

Career paths and labour mobility in the conventions and exhibitions industry in eastern Australia: results from a preliminary study

The Conventions and Exhibitions Industry has undergone substantial economic growth worldwide and is seen as an excellent provider of new employment opportunities. The sector is recognised and considered attractive for both new and existing employees and provides excellent career prospects. However careers within the sector are relatively new with little information available as to potential progression or pathways. In an industry that is subject to high mobility rates and labour turnover this paper presents the preliminary findings of a study that is focused on establishing the potential career paths, patterns and strategies of managers in the convention and exhibition industry in Australia. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The impact of crime on tourist arrivals in Jamaica

This paper examines the relationship between tourist arrivals and changes in the crime rate in Jamaica over the period 1962–1999. In particular, it uses a transfer function to account for variations in total arrivals and arrivals from the European market, owing to changes in the crime rate. The transfer function allows for the modelling of the immediate and delayed effect of crime rates on tourist arrivals. The paper finds first that although crime rates have a negative impact on tourism arrivals in both markets, it is of greater concern in the European market. Secondly, the impact of crime in the overall market is relatively small, because of increased advertising and promotion and the growth of all‐inclusive hotels. Finally the level of crime, especially violent crime, has to be reduced, because although the number of crimes against tourists has declined, high violent crime rates tend to raise concerns among tourists seeking a destination. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Towards collaborative, intermodal hub networks: A case study in the fast moving consumer goods market

Collaborative hub networks can provide an answer to the need to decrease logistics cost and maintain logistics service levels by shifting consolidated flows to modes that are better suited for handling large volumes (rail, barge, coastal shipping), so economies of scale can be obtained. This necessity has been increased by the tendency of globalization of industries, smaller shipments sizes, high frequencies, and the fragmentation of flows. Through collaboration the necessary synchronization between expensive but fast and flexible means of transport and inexpensive, but slow and inflexible means can be combined in an intermodal hub network. This paper shows the rationale behind these collaborative hub networks, based on the literature on the design of many-to-many hub networks. The resulting methodology is explained through presenting the results of the design and implementation of collaborative hub network for the distribution of fast moving consumer goods using a combination of trucking and inland barges. This concept, first proposed by Vermunt [Vermunt, A.J.M., 1999. Multilognet, the intelligent multimodal logistics network, an important node in the worldwide logistics net, Vermunt Logistiek Advies v.o.f., working paper (in Dutch)], won the European Intermodal Award of the European Intermodal Association in 2003, and after extensive research was launched in The Netherlands as a commercial pilot by logistics service provider Vos Logistics and barge operator Riverhopper in January 2004.     

Informality and accessibility to jobs by public transit: Evidence from the São Paulo Metropolitan Region

Access to opportunities through public transport can have different impacts on individual's life especially in developing countries where opportunities are limited, job informality rates are high, and socioeconomic characteristics gaps are big. The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between job informality and accessibility to employment by public transport in São Paulo Metropolitan Region (SPMR), Brazil. To do so, we calculate a cumulative-opportunity measure of accessibility to jobs for 633 areas within the SPMR. We use a multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression model to estimate the effect of job accessibility on the likelihood of being informally employed, controlling for individual and other area characteristics. To account for informal sector heterogeneity, two regression models are generated: one for the workers earning below minimum wage and one for the workers earning above minimum wage. The results show that accessibility to jobs is unevenly distributed across the region, largely concentrated in the core of the region, and especially in the high-income areas. The regression results show that for workers earning less than the minimum wage, a higher level of accessibility to jobs by public transport is associated with a lower likelihood of being a worker in the informal job sector. For informal workers earning more than the minimum wage, car ownership seem to be more relevant than transit accessibility in determining the likelihood of being part of the informal job sector. In light of these findings, increasing accessibility by public transport through either expanding transit services to areas with high informality rates to have a better access to formal jobs or supporting the decentralization of formal jobs may be a way to achieve reductions in informality rates, especially among those earning less than the minimum wage.     

Development of air pollutant emission factors under real-world truck driving cycle

The truck driving cycle was developed in Thailand using actual speed-time profile from trucks in suburban area. Driving data were separated into micro trips and the representative driving cycle was selected by matching micro trips statistics and target statistics. The Performance Value (PV) was considered for selecting the representative driving cycle. This selected driving cycle was then used as input data for estimating emission factors of 4 air pollutants and 3 greenhouse gases by the International Vehicle Emission (IVE) model. Results were then compared with emission factors developed using the European Transient Cycle (ETC). Additionally, a comparison was made between emission factors calculated in this study and direct measurements of emissions from truck driven on chassis dynamometer under the European driving cycle. Comparison results revealed that CO, NO_x and CO₂ emission factor were about 2.05, 2.24 and 1.78 times lower than those obtained from direct measurements. PM emission factor was about 0.89 times higher than measured data. This study confirms the need to considered actual fleets and characteristics of vehicular sources when calculating their emission rates for further use in development of emission inventory.     

The multistage stochastic integer load planning problem

Time-definite freight delivery common carriers, who pickup, consolidate and deliver small shipments are a key third-party logistics service provider in the supply chains. Under uncertain demands, carrier’s multistage stochastic integer load planning in the pure hub-and-spoke line-haul operations network is to determine multistage freight paths and distribute trailers over time while meeting operational restrictions, service requirements, and balancing trailer inventory at the termination of planning horizon. We developed a heuristic approach, scenario aggregation with embedded branching on the binary variables. The numerical experiments showed a proactive operations strategy with a lower operating cost than the conventionally deterministic approach.     

Container freight rates and the role of surcharges

This paper demonstrates that the structure of ocean container freight rates has become more complex. A growing number of surcharges are being imposed by the carriers on their customers, surcharges that are not only adding significant extra costs but are highly variable over time. These elements are examined based on a data set of export rates from ports on the Northern European Range that have been compiled from a major global carrier. The paper compares the surcharges to the base rates and discusses some of the implications for shippers who face increasing uncertainty in planning supply chains. Some of the issues for academic research on freight rates is also examined and points to the need to clearly identify what is included in the freight rate data employed. In addition, questions are raised concerning the suitability of many of the variables traditionally used to explain or predict freight rates.     

“Ideal” decision-making processes for transport planning: A comparison between Europe and South East Asia

In a recently completed research project on the decision-making process of sustainable urban transport planning issues for the European Union (EU) – entitled PROSPECTS (Procedures for Recommending Optimal Sustainable Planning of European City Transport Systems) – an “ideal” decision-making process for sustainable transport planning decisions in the European context was identified. A further EU-funded networking project (SPARKLE (Sustainability Planning for Asian Cities making use of Research, Know-How and Lessons from Europe)) considered the relevance of the PROSPECTS process to South East Asia, through seminars and workshops in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. This paper summarises various conclusions reached in these events. Whilst it was generally found that the basic element of the PROSPECTS approach transferred reasonably well to South East Asia, various key factors require revisions to be made to the approach. The most important of these factors are: differing traditions in planning; different weights in the transport-related objectives, use of only a limited set of potential policy instruments, fast growth rates (in both economic and travel terms); differences in types of vehicle used; and lack of data for use in assessment and modelling. These factors could be addressed in more detail in future research projects.     

Future accessibility impacts of transport policy scenarios: Equity and sensitivity to travel time thresholds for Bus Rapid Transit expansion in Rio de Janeiro

The accessibility impacts of transport projects ex-post implementation are generally evaluated using cumulative opportunity measures based on a single travel time threshold. Fewer studies have explored how accessibility appraisal of transport plans can be used to evaluate policy scenarios and their impacts for different social groups or examined whether the results of project appraisals are sensitive to the time threshold of choice. This paper analyzes how different scenarios of full and partial implementation of the TransBrasil BRT project in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) will likely impact the number of jobs accessible to the population of different income levels. The analysis is conducted under various travel time thresholds of 30, 60, 90 and 120 min to test whether the results are sensitive to the boundary effect of the modifiable temporal unit problem (MTUP). Compared to a partial operation scenario, the full implementation of TransBrasil that extends this corridor into the city center would lead to higher accessibility gains due to network effects of connecting this BRT to other transport modes. Nonetheless, the size of the accessibility impacts of the proposed BRT as well as its distribution across income classes would significantly change depending on the time threshold chosen for the accessibility analysis. Considering cut-off times of 30 or 60 min, both scenarios of TransBrasil would lead to higher accessibility impacts in general and particularly for low-income groups, moving Rio towards a more equitable transportation system. However, under longer thresholds of 90 and 120 min, an evaluation of this project would find much smaller accessibility gains more evenly distributed by income levels. The paper highlights how time threshold choice in cumulative opportunity measures can have important but overlooked implications for policy evaluation and it calls for further research on the MTUP in future transport and mobility studies.     

Temporal dynamics in local vehicle ownership for Great Britain

This article explores the stability of local vehicle ownership rates in Great Britain using the technique of spatial Markov chain analysis. Non-spatial Markov chain processes describe the transition of neighbourhoods through levels of ownership with no regard to their neighbourhood context. In reality however, how a neighbourhood transitions to different levels of ownership could be influenced by its neighbourhood context. A spatial Markov chain accounts for this context by estimating transition properties that are conditioned on the surrounding neighbourhood. These spatial Markov chain properties are estimated using a long run census time series from 1971 to 2011 of household vehicle ownership rates in Great Britain. These processes show that there is different behaviour in how neighbourhoods transition between levels of ownership depending on the context of their surrounding neighbours. The general finding is that the spatial Markov process will lead to a greater homogeneity in levels of ownership in each locality, with neighbourhoods surrounded by relatively low ownership neighbourhoods taking longer than a non-spatial Markov process would suggest to transition to higher levels, whilst neighbourhoods of high ownership surrounded by high ownership neighbourhoods take longer to transition to lower levels. This work corroborates Tobler's first law of geography “Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things” but also provides practical guidance. Firstly, in modelling ownership, spatial effects need to be tested and when present, accounted for in the model formulation. Secondly, in a policy context, the surrounding neighbourhood situation is important, with neighbourhoods having a tendency towards homogeneity of ownership levels. This allows for the effective planning of transport provision for local services. Thirdly, vehicle ownership is often used as a proxy for the social and aspirational nature of an area and these results suggest that these properties will persist for a prolonged period, possibly perpetuating and exacerbating differentials in society.     

Characterisation of airline networks: A North American and European comparison

This paper contrasts the North American and European air transport markets using the extensive Official Airline Guide Databases. The pattern of network development in the two continental regions is examined using data for 1996–2008. The top ten carriers in both regions are analysed closely in terms of network structures and the basic geographical characteristics of these networks are highlighted. In addition, different measures of air transport activity such as seating capacity, and number of movements and of routes are compared. Visualisations of carrier networks are used to highlight the different network strategies operated by low cost and full service carriers. European carrier networks display many significant differences to North American carrier networks. European carriers generally organise their networks around one or two key nodes within the member state in which they are registered and generally do not operate interactive, continental-wide, multiple hub-and-spoke networks as do North American carriers. European and North American low-cost carriers operate much more interconnected networks than full services carriers. Southwest Airlines stands out as operating a particularly highly interconnected network.     

Estimation of traffic density from drone-based delivery in very low level urban airspace

Driven by rising consumer demand, interest is growing in the application of autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) for the last-mile delivery of small express packages and fast-food meals in cities. To be realised, this would require the Very Low Level (VLL) urban airspace to be able to cope with high traffic densities of commercial delivery drones. The potential benefits of such novel drone-based applications are a reduction of traffic congestion in cities, lower greenhouse gas emissions and more efficient transportation operations. To help realise this concept, programs such as U-Space, the unmanned traffic management system for Europe, are developing important services such as deconfliction management and dynamic capacity management. However, for several of these services, design choices will depend on how, and how extensive they will be used. It therefore becomes important to estimate how many delivery drones would operate in a typical city. This paper aims to provide an estimate by establishing a framework to determine the traffic demand for express drone-based package delivery of five European countries. In addition, a detailed case-study is presented for determining traffic density of express package drone delivery for Paris metropolitan area in order to assess the feasibility from a user's perspective. The paper also discusses the potential of fast-food meal delivery drones compared to traditional delivery modes for Paris. Results suggest that hourly traffic densities culminating from express package and fast-food meal delivery drones will exceed today's global commercial aircraft traffic of 10,000 per day by more than six-fold for just one potential metropolitan city.