Marketing innovation: Sources,capabilities and consequences at airports in Europe's peripheral areas

This paper investigates sources, capabilities and consequences of marketing innovation at airports in Europe's peripheral areas. A questionnaire-based survey was administered to airport managers. Ten sources of airport marketing innovation are identified. Innovation is significantly higher at airports that are administered as an independent entity compared to airports that are administered as part of a regional or national airport system. Large airports have a significantly higher level of innovation compared to small airports. Innovation has a significant positive effect on airport marketing performance, irrespective of the strategic focus of the airport.     

The importance of concession revenues in the privatization of airports

We investigate the tradeoff between the airport’s concession and aeronautical revenues—two complementary services. Increasing the frequency of flights may result with congestion which could stimulate demand for concessions, but may also harm the demand for flights. When passengers have a low valuation for the concession good, the opportunity for concession revenue is small and the airport focuses its revenue on the aeronautical (i.e., landing) fees. With a sufficiently large valuation for concession goods, the airport may lower the aeronautical charges to stimulate greater flight frequency in order to lower airfares thereby attracting more passengers ultimately to increase concessions revenues. It is in the latter case where we observe minimal loss of aeronautical welfare when airports are privatized. Thus, our research could help guide decision makers in the airport privatization process. Namely, we find that privatization is not recommended unless the potential for concession revenues is sufficiently large.     

Effect of concentration in airline market on Spanish airport technical efficiency

This paper tries to measure the effect of airline market concentration on airport technical efficiency. With this aim, a Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) is applied, estimating with a one-step procedure technical efficiency and the effect of airlines' market power on that efficiency. Results suggest that when airports are lowly concentrated increasing concentration reduces such inefficiencies. However, this effect practically disappears when airports are highly concentrated. Additionally, the government's policies to improve airports' performance seems to have a positive effect in the short run.     

Accessibility and attractiveness of European airports: A simple small community perspective

This paper describes a simple method for comparing airports based on their accessibility to regional, continental or global air transport networks, using a variety of different measures of traffic. The method is applied to all Irish and UK airports for the years 2000, 2003 and 2005 and compares the performance of these airports in serving the UK/Ireland, Western European, Greater European, North American and global air transport markets. The method may be generalised to assess other regional groupings of airports in differing regional contexts, in situations where very limited demographic and socio-economic data are available.     

Impact of airports on regional accessibility and social development

This study compares the impact that two airports in Norway have on regional accessibility and social development. One of the airports is a small-sized airport that serves a relatively remote region and has direct air services to other regions in Norway but not to the capital city of Oslo or to destinations abroad. The other is a medium-sized airport that serves a relatively accessible region and has direct air services to the capital city of Oslo and to a number of destinations in Norway and abroad. The study compares opinions of residents that live in the respective regions and is based on the findings of a postal survey that was completed by over 2000 residents. The Independent Samples t-test is used to investigate the significance of any differences in opinion. Significant differences were found to reflect the size and scope of services available at the airports and specific characteristics of the regions that they serve. Residents in the more remote region have a significantly higher frequency of travel by air to destinations in Norway but a significantly lower frequency of travel by air to destinations abroad. Trip frequency for holidays is significantly higher in the region that has an airport with direct international air services while trip frequency to access health services is significantly higher in the region that has limited local health services. The airport is significantly more important for resident location and retention in the remoter region.     

Are outsourcing and non-aeronautical revenues important drivers in the efficiency of Spanish airports?

This paper evaluates the influence of contracting out, or outsourcing, certain airport services and of commercial diversification strategy. Although most of the effort is being put towards applying non-parametric techniques in airport efficiency studies, we have chosen parametric methodology. We use a distance function, as it has known advantages. The findings show the positive contribution of outsourcing and non-aeronautical revenues on the efficiency of the Spanish airports' network.     

Market orientation and business performance: An empirical investigation in the airline industry

As the airline industry has become more competitive, carriers have looked to improve performance and competitiveness. During the last decade, market-oriented corporate strategy has emerged as a significant antecedent of organizational performance and is presumed to contribute to long-term success. This study investigates potential influences of market orientation on airline performance. Data were collected by mail survey, and MARKOR was used to specify the dimensions of a market-orientated organization. The results support the positive influence of market orientation on business performance.     

Efficiency thresholds and cost structure in Senegal airports

This paper assesses airport efficiency levels in Senegal under a stochastic environment where the satisficing concept for different performance thresholds is applied. A two-stage satisficing DEA-Support Vector Machine approach is used here to compute the impacts of cost structure on these thresholds. In the first stage, within the ambit of the satisficing DEA model, the probabilities of achieving a minimal performance threshold are computed in a stochastic fashion. In the second stage, Support Vector Machine regression is used to discriminate between high/low efficiency groups within a given performance threshold. This methodology was sufficiently robust to handle small samples. The results reveal that the cost of capital and the cost of labor are the cost structure variables that have the greatest impact on efficiency levels, besides cargo operations.     

Comparing efficiency of holding business model and individual management model of airports

This research compares the efficiency of holding business model to individual management model of airports, employing some robust non-parametric partial frontier-based methods to compare the statistical distributions of efficiency, under different scenarios, to find out which group of airports yields better global performance. The comparison between groups will follow a Malmquist index decomposition, which seems to be the most appropriate tool for within- and inter-group performance comparison. For this purpose, a sample of 145 airports from three continents is utilized. The results provide evidence that European airports are the most productive ones, and within this cluster, the individual management model presented a significant frontier shift with respect the holding cluster frontier, meaning that the former is much more productive than the latter.     

Comparing proximity for couples of close airports. Case studies on city-airports in the pre COVID-19 era

Following the existing relationships between cities and airports, well depicted in the sectorial literature ((Thierstein and Conventz, 2018), (Tira et al., 2006), (Freestone, 2009), (Percoco, 2010), (Ventura et al., 2020))), this paper aims to investigate the linkages between the touristic traffic of some airports and the related development of the cities in which they are placed. The chosen case studies regard different remote regions (ONU, 2018) of three different countries (Italy, Norway, Cyprus), considering couples of near airports (Dziedzic and Warnock-Smith, 2015). The paper focuses the analysis on four couples of near airports, two from the South of Italy (Bari and Brindisi in the Apulia Region; Palermo and Trapani in Sicily), one in the North of Norway (Bødo and Narvik in Hålogaland) and the last one in the Republic of Cyprus (Larnaca and Paphos).A GIS analytic methodology has been used to describe the differences between the different couples of airports. Managed by the GIS analytical evaluation, the purpose of this paper is to give support to the different theories about the development of couples of close airports, using geographic tools to support economic and financial planning ((Cook and Billig, 2017) (Graham, 2014), (AntonínKazdaa et al., 2017) (Young and Wells, 2011))]. There has been pointed out the results of the adopted methodology on the working Norwegian network system analysis.     

A spatial analysis of air transport access and the essential air service program in the United States

In the United States, the goal of essential air service (EAS) is to provide a minimum level of air transport service from smaller, often remote communities to the national network. While supporters of EAS tout the economic benefits of connecting rural and isolated communities, critics cite high costs, low use and antiquated eligibility requirements as factors which compromise the value of the program. In this paper, a comprehensive database of US airports is combined with network analysis techniques and a geographic information system to evaluate population access (at the census tract level) to EAS airports for 2006. Results suggest that redundant coverage of EAS market areas by alternative Federal Aviation Administration designated hub airports can contribute to EAS airport market leakage and that alternative definitions of EAS community eligibility have the potential to dramatically increase programmatic efficiency and reduce federal monies spent on EAS subsidies.     

The impact of airline lease agreements on the financial performance of US hub airports

This paper employs benchmarking analysis to examine the financial implications of the different types of airline lease agreements used by US airports. Five key financial performance areas relating to cost effectiveness, revenue generation, commercial performance, financial profitability and capital investment are analysed using financial data from 2011/12 for 23 of the 29 large-hub airports. The results show that compensatory airports are the most financially efficient, particularly in terms of debt efficiency, revenue generation and profitability while the vertical airport airline relationship that is common at residual airports delivers higher levels of commercial performance and cost efficiency.     

The market development of aviation biofuel: Drivers and constraints

Aviation biofuel is technically viable and nearing the commercial stage. In the last ten years, biofuels have moved from relative obscurity to a point where certain types of fuel have become fully certified for commercial use in up to 50% blends with standard jet fuel and commercial partnerships between airlines and biofuel producers are being established. Yet despite numerous successful test flights, aviation biofuels have yet to become widely commercialised. Drawing on the findings of in-depth interviews with leading global aviation biofuel stakeholders undertaken between October and December 2011, this paper identifies and examines the perceived factors that are affecting the market development of biofuels for aviation. The paper illustrates that market development is being driven by the combined effects of rising jet fuel prices, the potential future impact of emissions legislation and concerns about fuel (in)security. However, commercialisation is being constrained by high production costs, limited availability of suitable feedstocks, uncertainty surrounding the definition of the sustainability criteria, and a perceived lack of both national and international political and policy support for aviation biofuel. The implications of these findings for commercial aviation and the future development of global market for aviation biofuel market are discussed.     

Environmental orientation in tourism: the RTEO scale

This paper analysed the validity and reliability of the revised tourist ecological orientation (RTEO) scale. There are relatively few studies in the area of the ecological behaviour of tourists and, therefore, RTEO and other scales should be taken into account in future tourism research. This study is based on a sample of 461 golf tourists. A double analysis was carried out: (1) a qualitative analysis through expert opinion and (2) a quantitative analysis through the partial least squares approach. The results suggest that the RTEO scale is a brief, simple and reliable scale of environmental actions.     

Frequency and aircraft size dynamics in a concentrated growth market: The case of the Chinese domestic market

Despite the explosive growth of the Chinese aviation sector and the major industry reforms undertaken in recent decades, the Chinese domestic market remains highly concentrated with a significant element of regulation and governmental control in areas such as market entry and airline fleet planning. In this study, we investigate the frequency strategies and aircraft choices of airlines operating in this concentrated growth market. Our empirical investigation suggests that airlines mainly accommodate rapid traffic growth by flying more frequently, although increased aircraft size also contributes to market expansion. We also find a negative relationship between market concentration and flight frequency. Due to the more balanced market structure resulting from mergers among leading airlines since 2002, there has been a moderate reduction in market concentration at route level, contributing to a 3.7% increase in traffic volume from 2002 to 2008. The results of our study suggest that Chinese travelers have yet to fully enjoy the benefits of market liberalization, and airports should prioritize increasing capacity related to aircraft movements over the accommodation of larger aircraft.     

Entrepreneurial orientation in family firms: the case of the hospitality industry

Research increasingly shows interest in the motives and characteristics of entrepreneurs in the tourism and hospitality industry. Small and medium-sized family firms dominate this industry. Learning from the concept of entrepreneurial orientation and family business research, this explorative study aims at analysing entrepreneurial behaviours and their effect on performance as perceived by owner-managers of hospitality family businesses. The authors conduct narrative in-depth interviews to understand the managers' meaning of entrepreneurship and performance, and discuss the results in the light of existing entrepreneurship literature. Results indicate that family firms in hospitality and tourism are peculiar, and their embeddedness in the destinations and regions outlines their entrepreneurial behaviour against Schumpeter's definition of growth-oriented entrepreneurship.     

Grounded: Characterising the market exit of European low cost airlines

The aim of this paper is to undertake a comprehensive study of low cost carrier (LCC) market entry and exit in Europe between 1992 and 2012. In the 20 year period between 1992 and 2012, 43 LCCs have taken advantage of the progressive liberalisation of the European aviation market and commenced scheduled flight operations within the continent. Of these 43, only 10 remain operational, a failure rate of 77%. This paper contributes to extant literature on LCCs by examining the market entry, business practices, operating longevity and fate of failed operators to characterise European LCC market exit. Drawing on the findings of a detailed continental-wide study, the paper identifies that an airline's start-up date, the nature and size of its operation and the size and composition of its aircraft fleet are key factors which influence LCC success and failure. The implications for both European and emerging LCC markets are discussed.     

Mode choice behavior modeling of ground access to airports: A case study in Istanbul,Turkey

The increase in air transportation mode share, thereby the passenger traffic at airports has made the ground access to the airports more important in recent years. The aim of this study is to analyze the ground access mode choice to airports by using Multinomial Logit (MNL). In particular, our focus is on how transit areas of influence affect the mode choice for travelling to airports. Atatürk International Airport (IST) in Istanbul, Turkey was selected for the analyses and the investigated modes to access IST were automobile, drop-off, public transit, and taxi. The results showed that significant factors and variables included the trip distance to access IST, type of destination, trip cost to IST, automobile ownership status, employment status, travelling group size, location of the trip origin with respect to public transit influence, and time difference between the flight time and departure time to IST. It is also concluded that if the trip origin to IST was inside the influence areas of public transit, then public transit would be more likely to be chosen over other modes for accessing IST.     

Drivers of operational efficiency and its impact on market performance in the Indian Airline industry

India is considered to be one of the toughest aviation markets in the world, due to high fuel prices, overcapacity and intense price competition. It is therefore important to identify critical drivers of performance, which enable the airlines to survive and succeed in this emerging market with huge growth potential. In the current empirical study, we investigate the linkages between various performance drivers, operational efficiencies and market performance. An extensive data collection using primary and secondary sources enabled us to gather data on all the airlines operating in India, both private and public, for the period 2005–2012, on a variety of important parameters. We carried out a two-stage empirical analysis, which involved estimation of operational efficiencies during the first stage using Data Envelopment Analysis, and determination of performance drivers during the second stage using a two-way random effects GLS regression and also a Tobit model. Our findings suggest that while some of the structural and regulatory factors have an undesirable impact on airline performance, the low cost carriers in India have managed to achieve significant operational efficiencies. In addition, we find that, while cost efficiency is driven by a variety of factors, it is the technical efficiency which brings in better market performance through pricing power in the Indian airline industry.     

A ticket to ride: Evolving landscapes of air travel accessibility in the United States

During the past decade, air passenger service in the United States has been exposed to numerous carrier bankruptcies, antitrust investigations, mergers, labor problems and a massive increase in competition. These internal elements, combined with the rising costs of fuel and the threat of terrorism combine to make a relatively uncertain air travel landscape for both passengers and operators. Moreover, these dynamics have generated significant geographical shifts in airline route structures and airports serviced by commercial carriers. These factors, combined with increasing levels of consumer access to fare and routing information, have altered the landscape of air travel accessibility in the United States. The purpose of this paper is to examine issues of consumer air travel accessibility through an analysis of three critical measures: flight segments, flight time and ticket costs. In addition, a typology of air passenger accessibility is generated for the 156 busiest commercial airports in the United States using these three measures. Results suggest significant local and regional biases in time and cost, relative to distance, for many US markets.