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.     

The impact of low cost carriers on Korean Island tourism

Given the mixed findings of extant research on the impact of low-cost carriers (hereafter LCC) on aviation markets (with some studies showing stimulation of new demand, other studies showing LCCs encroaching on the turf of full-service carriers), the emergence of LCCs in Korea raised an interesting question as to whether or not they actually contribute to overall growth in domestic air traffic. The literature has paid limited attention to this issue so far. Employing a multivariate regression analysis with monthly data from 2000 to 2009, the impact of LCCs on tourism demand to a popular destination in Korea, Jeju Island, is examined, focusing on two specific questions: Have LCCs generated new tourism demand and brought more tourism revenue into the island’s economy? Have LCCs mitigated tourism seasonality on the island? Controlling for the effects of a number of factors, results showed that LCCs have generated new demand in addition to existing tourist flows to the island. Korean LCCs accounted for 35% of total passengers in 2009, which indicates an average growth rate of 161.7% over the last 4 years, compared to a −0.3% growth rate for all full-service carriers in Korea. However, LCCs seem to have had little impact on reducing seasonal fluctuations in passenger traffic to Jeju Island. The findings of this study will be of interest to researchers, policy makers, and a variety of stakeholders in the tourism industry interested in the relationship between no-frills airlines and island economies.     

Airport traffic and financial performance: a UK and Ireland case study

The aim of this paper is to examine the development of air services at UK and Irish airports since 1998 and to assess the impact on airport financial performance. A sample of 14 medium/small sized UK airports and three Irish airports is used. The traffic analysis shows that low cost carriers have been largely responsible for strong passenger growth and increased passenger load at a number of regional airports. Some of these carriers use established primary and regional airports whilst others seek out small secondary airports. The airports with a high proportion of low cost traffic tend to have lower unit revenues, particularly as regards airport charges, demonstrating their desire to remain price competitive to capture this type of traffic.     

The carbon emissions of selected airlines and aircraft types in three geographic markets

Various carbon calculators developed by airlines and carbon offset companies have become available since the environmental impact of the air transport industry started to receive strong attention. This paper details a prototype methodology for carbon calculation emission levels in the three air transport markets; the UK domestic routes, the intra-EU routes serving UK and the North Atlantic routes that enables the assessment of key environmental performance differences between air carriers whereas they would be measured as identical using the often used DEFRA-type measurement approach. The results show differences in airlines' strategies such as aircraft type used, load factors and seat configurations.     

The impact of airport fees on fares for the leisure air travel market: The case of Spain

Panel data is used to determine the incidence of airport fees on fares in the Spanish leisure market airlines. We also study its structure through an empirical specification of a pricing and demand equation system. The results show the existence of market power, strategic behavior and density economics. We also demonstrate that airlines pass all the airport fees onto customers by increasing fares. Furthermore, we find that the behavior of airlines in routes with the presence of low cost carriers do not differ from other routes.     

Urban heritage and cultural tourism development: a case study of Valletta’s role in Malta’s tourism

ABSTRACT

Despite significant potential for cultural tourism, the predominant form of tourism in Malta is sun and sea. This paper evaluates Malta’s potential for cultural tourism with a focus on Valletta, a fortified historic city that overlooks the Grand Harbour. Valletta’s rich urban heritage and historic narrative makes it ideal for the development of a more culture-oriented tourism. The paper explores how, over more than half a century of tourism activity in Malta, culture and heritage retained a secondary role. Since the mid-nineties, Malta’s tourism policy shifted with culture and heritage being given greater importance, even if the sun and sea tourism remained a priority. Public and private investment brought about changes in Valletta that made it more amenable to cultural activity and tourism. Although European Capital of Culture Valletta 2018 provides new opportunities for cultural tourism to Malta, it is unclear whether this will bring a lasting legacy for Malta’s tourism. This Valletta case study shows that, for destinations with an established form of tourism, the development of cultural tourism meets with difficulties, in spite the presence of a rich urban heritage.     

The potential impacts of the EU/US Open Sky Agreement: What will happen at Heathrow after spring 2008

The paper examines the impact of removing the restrictions remaining in EU/US bilateral air service agreements, the major one relating to the air services between the US and the UK. These are dismantled under Stage I of the EU/US Open Skies agreement, which will automatically fall unless progress is made on the Stage II issues, especially reform of the US ownership and control rules. Previous evaluations of the likely impact of lifting these restrictions are reviewed, especially in relation to passengers and fares between the US and London. Such evaluations look optimistic given preliminary plans for the first summer season. Reasons why airlines prefer Heathrow to Gatwick are discussed before comparing US/London air service capacity for June 2008 with the previous June, with indications for a 5% increase in overall seat capacity and an 8% increase in flights. A net increase of seven daily flights is planned from Heathrow and Gatwick, not far in excess of normal market growth and no new non-stop routes will be introduced that had not already been operated from either UK airport. These changes are analysed in terms of US and UK airline responses, taking into account slot availability and cost. The seat capacity share of US carriers from both Heathrow and Gatwick advances by just over 2 percentage points to 40%.     

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.     

An analysis of European low-cost airlines and their networks

The growth of low-cost carriers (LCCs) is currently focused on the Western European market, where they represent the most determining factor in the evolution of airline networks. In this area, they stand for 18% of the total air transport supply according to seats. Limited to short and medium haul flights, networks are not too concentrated (no hubs). They are North–South, and compete with—when they have not replaced—some charter routes. The use of air freedoms beyond the fourth is still limited, but exclusive routes are a frequent phenomenon linked to the option for secondary (urban or regional) airports and/or niches.Finally, low-cost carriers give fresh impetus to point-to-point routes by drawing new networks complementing those of full service network carriers (FSNCs). If no hubs as such can be found in these new networks, significant concentrations characterize the major bases.The geography of low-cost networks is to a large extent the geography of EU air transport liberalization.     

Recovering costs through price and service differentiation: Accounting for exogenous information on attribute processing strategies in airline choice

The entry of low cost airlines has thrown out a challenge to all airlines to find ways of attracting passengers, through a mix of fare discounting, greater frequency, improved flight times and no-frill's levels of on-board service. These competitive strategies have an impact on cost recovery. As airlines seek business in an increasingly heterogeneous passenger market, a greater understanding of what matters to potential passengers in choosing an airline grows in importance. Traditional studies of passenger airline choice assume that all attributes matter, but some to a lesser extent. What happens to the empirical evidence on willingness to pay when specific attributes are totally ignored by particular passengers? In this paper, we examine the impact of individual-specific attribute processing strategies (APS) on the inclusion/exclusion of attributes on the parameter estimates and behavioural outputs of models of airline service and fare level choice. Modelling practice assumes that whilst respondents may exhibit preference heterogeneity, they employ a homogenous APS with regards to how they process the presence/absence of attributes of stated choice (SC) experiments. We demonstrate how information collected exogenous of the SC experiment on whether respondents either ignored or considered each attribute of the SC task may be used in the estimation process, and how such information may be used to provide outputs that are attribute processing strategies segment specific.     

The effect of LCCs operations and scheduled services deregulation on air charter business in Japan

Recent aviation deregulation is producing structural changes within leisure industries in many parts of the world. This paper reviews the development of low cost carriers (LCCs) and assesses its effects on both of domestic and international charter markets in Japan since 2007. Furthermore, this paper analyzes the effect of scheduled services deregulation on international tourism to Japanese regional areas in relation to charter services. The results suggest that in the domestic market, LCC operations have seldom impacted charter traffic due to the differences in target markets and routes. In the international market, LCCs launched scheduled services to Japan but mainly on high demand routes. The deregulation of scheduled services led to a passenger shift from charters to newly scheduled flights and a concentration of tourist arrivals in regional centres. It also led to a decline in international tourist arrivals in some remote destinations. This paper indicates a current trend in which charter business is still an important sector in aviation and leisure markets.     

Encouraging tourism development through the EU structural funds: a case study of the implementation of EU programmes on Bornholm

The Danish island of Bornholm has had success in attracting funds from the European Union structural fund to remedy its declining tourism sector, supporting both private sector development and public tourism services. It is difficult, however, to measure the impact of these funds on the tourism sector. Most evaluations of such support schemes are based on a top-down approach, with evaluation conducted on the basis of predefined end-goals. This study takes a different approach, evaluating the programmes on subjective criteria defined by the actors in the tourism industry themselves. Success is defined in terms of the extent to which the programmes have enabled the local tourism industry to overcome what they view as the major obstacles to tourism development. The main findings are that the programmes are most well suited to help the tourism sector overcome tractable problems such as low hotel standards and lack of offseason attractions. On Bornholm, the programmes also have had some success in alleviating problems such as lack of cooperation on a common strategy. This is found to result from the comprehensive network of private and public agencies participating in the process of implementing the funds. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Clustered airline flight scheduling: Evidence from airline deregulation in Korea

This paper explores the impacts of competition level on airline scheduling in the Korean domestic short-haul routes where a hub-and-spoke system is not the optimal air transport network strategy. The empirical findings using the Korean airline panel data for the period 2006–2010 suggest that competition leads to less differentiated departure flight times as expected from spatial competition theory. Unlike the previous study on the U.S airline industry, the degree of this tendency for less differentiation differs across the type of routes: the Jeju island routes (leisure type) and the inland routes (business type), in the deregulated period. Following the May 2008 Deregulation Act we find an increasingly clustered pattern of airline scheduling in the Jeju island routes where there have been competitive pressures associated with new low cost entrants. This recent evidence would imply that airline carriers strategically schedule departure flight times and allocate flights between routes as competition increases in the deregulated period.     

Mutual influence across routes using a common airport: The case of the domestic market in Japan

This paper empirically investigates the mutual influence of traffic volumes across routes serving the same airport. Regression analysis using the data on Japan's domestic air transport market reveals that an increase in passengers on a given route has a positive effect on the number of passengers on other routes that share an endpoint airport with the given route. This result implies that a change in policy for an airport is likely to influence routes that do not serve that airport as well as the routes that do.     

Going steerage on Ryanair: cultures of migrant air travel between Poland and the UK

One of the most high profile migration movements to the UK in recent years has undoubtedly been that of A8, and mainly Polish, newcomers following the 2004 expansion of the EU. Accompanying, and perhaps fuelling, this increase in mobility has been a substantial rise in low cost air travel provision. The UK Civil Aviation Authority and the Civil Aviation Office of the Republic of Poland statistics testify to the expansion in passenger numbers between Poland and the UK since 2004, with Ryanair being one of the main carriers. Although other modes of transport, such as coach and car travel, are still important, in some senses these Ryanair flights define this new migration. Taking as a starting point that airports and airplanes are social and cultural venues in their own right, and that migration journeys are themselves at the heart of the migration experience, this article uses interviews with Polish migrants in the UK to consider this low cost air travel for migration in more depth. Firstly it briefly charts the increase in air travel between Poland and the UK, considering the narratives of mobility cultures collected with the migrants. Secondly it investigates the collective dimension of travelling for migration on these flights and the tensions which emerge around this collectivity. Finally, it reflects on the wider costs and contexts of low cost shuttle flights as a late capitalist mode of migration transport.     

Biting the Hand that Feeds: The Marginalisation of Tourism and Leisure Industry Providers in Times of Agricultural Crisis

The total closure of the countryside under the control regulations associated with the outbreak of the UK 2001 Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) had major impacts on the tourism and leisure industry. The English Regional Tourist Board estimated that there was a loss of tourism revenue of £5 billion, which cost 150,000 direct jobs. Cumbria experienced a fall in tourism expenditure of around £198 million; this was 31% of the value of receipts. This paper presents an evaluation of the impact of the countryside closure on tourism and leisure organisations in the area of Keswick, UK. The use of online quotes from interested or affected parties was also drawn upon in order to further illustrate the effects of the countryside closure. This geographical location was selected due to it being the epicentre of foot and mouth disease epidemic in 2001. The authors will consider the strategic management of the crisis and its resultant outcomes with particular reference to the value of the tourism and leisure industry in rural locations.     

Understanding the benefits of social tourism: Linking participation to subjective well‐being and quality of life

This paper aims to explore the relationship between well‐being, quality of life and holiday participation among low‐income families in the UK. There have been very studies that have examined quality of life (QOL) and subjective well‐being in relation to tourism and none that have attempted to apply measures to assess the benefits of holidays for those people who are generally excluded from participation. This is important in relation to social tourism because of the fundamental need to develop mechanisms to evaluate the impact of charitable funding for supporting low‐income families' participation in holidaymaking. This study evaluates the types of reasons given for financial assistance in applications to the Family Holiday Association including follow‐up research with a sample of successful applicants on the perceived benefits of the holiday, including questions on QOL factors. The findings are limited in scope but do indicate that increases in QOL were reported among low‐income families. The paper concludes by arguing that further research on adapted well‐being and QOL measures be applied to tourism consumption. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Shortest path distance vs. least directional change: Empirical testing of space syntax and geographic theories concerning pedestrian route choice behaviour

Existing knowledge on the impact of built environment (BE) on route choice behaviour is doubtful due to an unresolved tension between two schools of thought. One represented BE geographically and found that most people tend to choose the shortest route. The other represented BE topologically and showed that least directional change is a key determinant of route choice. How do pedestrians make a trade-off between these two factors in route choice? This question is answered using walking route data of 178 pedestrians in Brisbane, Australia. Their reported routes were examined against the corresponding shortest path and least directional change routes using the percent overlap method. The effects of 25 additional BE factors were also estimated in a conditional logit model. The results reveal that: (a) Together distance and direction are likely to explain 53% of route choice decisions; (b) Individually, distance and direction are likely to explain 34% and 46% of route choice decisions respectively; (c) 28% of the chosen routes satisfied both distance and direction criteria. These findings confirm the claims of both schools, but also point that the least directional change route is a preferred option, and that pedestrians tend to minimise both criteria if they can.