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Using data on the Japanese domestic market from 2008 to 2013, this paper investigates the market dynamics triggered by the 2010 bankruptcy protection of Japan Airlines (JAL). Our analysis suggests that JAL downsized its overall operations, leaving relatively thin routes even though there were fewer competitors and slightly higher yields in those thin markets. The airline nevertheless increased the yields and flight frequencies in the consolidated network more significantly than its rival airlines did. Following JAL's bankruptcy, Japanese carriers focused more on improving yield and frequency in general, and the competition between the duopoly airlines (JAL and All Nippon Airways (ANA)) became less effective. In comparison, low-cost carriers (LCCs) and smaller airlines continued to exert significant competitive pressure on the market despite their small market shares. These patterns are different from those observed in the US, where a huge domestic market is served by a large number of competitive airlines. Overall, our analysis suggests that the Japanese government's support of JAL's restructuring efforts was appropriate. However, there is evidence that the JAL-ANA duopoly became less effective in maintaining market competition. The Japanese government should more actively explore ways to provide a level playground to LCCs and smaller airlines so that enhanced competition can promote airline efficiency and services in the long term. • This paper investigates the market dynamics triggered by the 2010 bankruptcy protection of Japan Airlines. • JAL downsized its overall operations, but managed to increase the yields and flight frequencies in the consolidated network. • Following JAL's bankruptcy, the competition between the duopoly airlines (JAL and All Nippon Airways) became less effective. • Low-cost carriers and smaller airlines continued to exert significant competitive pressure on the market despite their small market shares. • The Japanese government should explore ways to enhance competition and promote airline efficiency and services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a simple approach for identifying propagated departure delays and measuring their contribution to arrival delays. Under our approach, a propagated departure delay occurs when the arrival delay of the inbound flight exceeds the subsequent flight's ground buffer. The size (or frequency) of such propagated delays relative to the size (or frequency) of arrival delays then measures the contribution of propagated delays to late arrivals. This approach differs from earlier attempts to quantify the contribution of delay propagation since it focuses on an individual flight and its immediate predecessor, without attempting to trace the sources of delay propagation back through the entire sequence of prior flights. The paper's empirical results show that the contribution of propagated departure delays to arrival delays depends on several key determinants. • Previous papers trace delay propagation through an aircraft's daily flights. • This paper considers only the inbound arrival delay for the single previous flight. • Measured this way, delay propagation's contribution to arrival delays is high as follows. • For flights with non-hub origins, flights later in the day, and flights operated by LCCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent literature has documented consumers' imperfect optimization when facing taxes. Despite the rich literature in this area, little research has been conducted in the airline industry context. I exploit the variation of tax changes in the airline industry to analyze how US passengers react to tax and price changes. I show that passengers react more strongly to taxes than to price changes through the use of semi-elasticities. Baseline estimates suggest that the tax elasticity of demand is approximately 1.5 times as strong as the price elasticity of demand. This paper extends the literature by allowing for heterogeneous price and tax responses, and by providing a series of possible rationales that explain how overoptimization can arise in the airline industry. Tax aversion, media coverage, persistent tax increases, psychological factors, and non-standard preferences suggested in the literature could all contribute to explaining passengers' overoptimization in the airline industry. The findings in this paper have profound contributions both to the economic literature, to the airline industry, and practitioners at both the local and federal levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impacts of Northeast Alliance (NEA) between American Airlines and JetBlue Airways on market concentration and airfares on routes to and from the four pertinent airports in Boston and New York regions. Using panel data covering quarterly domestic flight schedules and airfares for 11 U.S. airlines during the 2019–2021 period, we apply difference-in-difference method and find evidence for positive and significant NEA effect on market concentration on routes out of BOS, and negative and significant effect on routes out of EWR, but no significant effect for routes out of JFK and LGA. The overall NEA effects, including all four airports, are not significant. Furthermore, our airfare estimation results indicate that NEA has led to higher airfares on routes out of BOS, JFK and LGA, but not on routes out of EWR. These findings are valuable to supplement the recent antitrust investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice of this alliance. • Investigate the impacts of Northeast Alliance on market concentration and airfares. • Mixed effects on market concentration at different airports concerned. • Mixed effects on airfare at different airports concerned. • Different airfare increasing effects between American Airlines and JetBlue Airways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the challenges of the maritime supply chain compared to land transport and discusses the new digital initiatives to simplify the processes and enable a better plan for the entire supply chain. First, the background is outlined with an example of the extensive admin processes in maritime transport compared to road transport, followed by a case example presenting the processes of a booking. The case study concludes that the lack of integration is costly in terms of both admin resources, as well as lost capacity on some ships and missing capacity on others. Finally, the evolution of new digital initiatives are discussed, both in general and in terms of competing "alliances" as seen in the airline industry. The paper concludes that the information exchange in the maritime industry has moved drastically in the last 3 years and that one initiative, TradeLens, seems to have gained a position as maritime standard despite a problematic start with many competing initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the price dispersion among China's "Big Three", namely, Air China, China Eastern and China Southern in the presence of high-speed rail (HSR). It has been found that HSR is positively and significantly associated with airline price dispersion on the long-haul routes, which may suggest that the presence of HSR can facilitate airline cooperation in setting prices and outputs, thereby leading to greater price dispersion. However, on the short-haul routes where HSR is highly substitutable, the HSR competition effect dominates, and smaller price dispersion is observed. All the market structure and competition variables included in this study support the conclusion that price dispersion is greater in more concentrated and more densely travelled markets. The contribution of airline cost to price dispersion is limited. • This paper examines the price dispersion among Chinese main carriers in the presence of high-speed rail (HSR). • The presence of HSR is positively and significantly associated with airline price dispersion. • Price dispersion is greater in more concentrated and more densely travelled markets. • The contribution of airline cost to price dispersion is limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Net cash flow is extremely important in capital-intensive industries. In industries operating on a global scale, such as the airline industry, situations such as a terrorist attack, financial crises, pandemic, or war can make cash flow uncertain and unreliable. The airline industry has faced significant cash flow problems during the COVID-19 pandemic. The interruption of net cash flow, especially during crises (e.g., Covid-19), causes some industries to experience financial stress. In this study, we aim to reveal the financial determinants of corporate cash holdings in the airline industry, based on the airline business model. In this context, we empirically analyzed airlines employing low-cost and traditional business models. Unlike previous research, we analyze the financial determinants of airlines' net cash flows from financing activities, investing activities and operating activities. This paper makes a substantial contribution to the literature by leveraging a comprehensive analysis of cash flow dynamics, shedding new light on financial performance. We devised a comprehensive approach by formulating five distinct models to scrutinize the determinants that influence corporate cash holdings. The proposed model demonstrates versatility within various segments of the aviation industry, making it applicable to both traditional and low-cost airline business models. The findings of the study indicate that there are differences between models regarding the financial determinants of corporate cash holdings. The analysis reveals interesting insights contrary to the conventional wisdom on corporate cash holdings in the airline industry. For instance, one of the most interesting findings of the study is that the financial structure of airlines is significantly determined by the source of net cash flow (from financing, investment and operational activities). Furthermore, the findings of the study provide a multidimensional understanding of the factors affecting airlines' corporate cash holdings. • Empirical analysis of financial determinants cash holdings in the airline industry. • Multidimensional understanding of factors impacting cash holdings. • Significance of net cash flow in capital-intensive industries. • Innovation in research approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to analyze the efficiency of global airlines by incorporating innovation capital into a two-stage dynamic network data envelopment analysis (DEA) framework. This paper addresses these concerns by developing a dynamic network DEA model that considers the interconnectedness between airlines' internal processes and the carry-over effects between time periods. It incorporates the dynamic impact of shared carry-over items, enabling accurate computation of efficiency scores for these two stages. The study divides the airline operation system into two stages: production stage and service stage, where intertemporal shared innovation capital occurs. The results reveal that, despite majority airlines prioritizing the service stage, production stage contributed most to overall efficiency. In terms of periodic results, the efficiency score of airlines in 2017 is marginally higher compared to 2016 and 2018, respectively. In general, airlines place a slightly greater emphasis on service stage than production stage. Innovation is essential for airlines to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. Despite considerable interest in analyzing performance, this is one of the first studies to incorporate innovation capital in airline efficiency studies. The proposed model can help airline managers, regulators, and policymakers measure performance reliably and improve airline efficiency and sustainability. • A dynamic network DEA model integrating innovation capital is employed in the study. • There is a significant impact of the production stage on airline efficiency. • The results reveal a marginal rise in efficiency in 2017, followed by a slight dip in 2018. • The study emphasizes the vital role of innovation in sustaining airline competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flight delay propagation and recovery processes in airline networks differ due to differences in airline network structures, capacity distributions, and base airport locations. When each airline network is regarded as a network layer, flight delay propagation and interaction in a multiplex network system (MNS) composed of multiple airlines will become more complex and variable. In this paper, flight delays from different airlines are considered propagation sources, and an MNS-based flight delay propagation model is established under the framework of the susceptible-infected-susceptible model. By comparing the independent propagation process of delays in a single-layer airline network and the interactive propagation process of delays in an MNS, we investigate the impact of network structure on flight delays to propose corresponding delay control strategies for different airlines. The results show that unlike in single-layer networks, in an MNS, the behavior of airlines at an airport facilitates or inhibits delay propagation in other layers by influencing the network characteristics and propagation rate. The same airport may even play different roles in different layers, depending on the function it has. Therefore, not all flights are infected or have aggravated delays when accessing the MNS; instead, they are impacted by combined factors such as on-time performance, network structure, and flight interaction. • The new characteristics of multiplex network system (MNS) is identified to investigate their impact on flight delay propagation. • An MNS-based flight delay propagation model is constructed to reveal the interactive process of flight delay between layers. • We suggest a development trend for the MNS and propose delay control strategiesfor different airlines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract 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. Highlights • This paper examines the impact that airline market structure has on airport technical efficiency. • We find that concentration has a positive impact on technical efficiency. • Concentration positive effect on efficiency decreases when the level of concentration grows. • Airport policies seem to work better when affect a group of airports with common characteristics than for the whole system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Catering supplier selection is multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem faced by airline industry. The evaluation process primarily involves the assessment of several complex factors for selecting a catering supplier that will best meet the airline requirements. There are a few applications of the catering supplier selection model. The approach of this paper is towards the solution for catering supplier selection. This study integrates the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) with a type of performance rating involving the determination a degree of utility by additive ratio assessment (ARAS) and multi-choice goal programming (MCGP). A real-life case study in selecting a catering supplier is also presented. Highlights • How to choose the best catering supplier to increase customer's satisfaction is crucial for the airline. • An integrated method combining AHP, ARAS and MCGP is proposed to solve the MCDM problem of catering supplier selection. • This new model considers both qualitative and quantitative decision criteria to select the best catering supplier. • This paper is to propose an efficient and simple method to assist airlines in choosing the best catering supplier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Whether consumers, on net, benefit from a grant of ATI to partner airlines has caused much public debate. • This paper investigates the impact of granting ATI to oneworld alliance members on their price, markup, and various measures of cost. • The evidence suggests that implementation of the oneworld alliance without ATI did not have a statistically significant impact on the markup of products offered by the members, and there is no evidence that the subsequent grant of ATI to various members resulted in higher markups on their products. • We find evidence suggesting that the grant of ATI facilitated a decrease in partner carriers' marginal and fixed costs. • Furthermore, member carriers' price did not increase (decreased) in markets where their services do (do not) overlap, implying that consumers, on net, benefit from the grant of ATI in terms of price changes. Abstract Airlines wanting to cooperatively set prices for their international air travel service must apply to the relevant authorities for antitrust immunity (ATI). Whether consumers, on net, benefit from a grant of ATI to partner airlines has caused much public debate. This paper investigates the impact of granting ATI to oneworld alliance members on their price, markup, and various measures of cost. The evidence suggests that implementation of the oneworld alliance without ATI did not have a statistically significant impact on the markup of products offered by the members, and there is no evidence that the subsequent grant of ATI to various members resulted in higher markups on their products. We find evidence suggesting that the grant of ATI facilitated a decrease in partner carriers' marginal and fixed costs. Furthermore, member carriers' price did not increase (decreased) in markets where their services do (do not) overlap, implying that consumers, on net, benefit from the grant of ATI in terms of price changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper, based on a published report by the International Transport Forum at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (ITF), examines the issues, or 'headwinds', preventing aviation from becoming a truly market-based sector. It paints a brief portrait of the history of regulation and deregulation in aviation and the role of competition policy in a liberalised aviation marketplace. It then focuses on the level playing field, which is often used to argue for protectionist policies and ownership restrictions on air carriers. The paper suggests that some of the controls on market access in place today may do more harm to consumers and the broader economy than good. Highlights • A purely free-market aviation sector remains elusive. • Protecting interests of incumbents motivates some resistance to free markets. • Restrictive policies can limit social welfare gains provided by aviation. • Hence, controls on market access can do more harm than good. • Agreeing common guidelines key to tackling 'headwinds'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper examines the US airline industry in terms of the relationships between the three largest full service carriers, American Airlines, Delta Airlines and United Airlines, and the set of regional carriers that are contracted to provide feeder services to them. The evolution of the regional carriers and the full service carriers are compared and recorded and the current industry structure and size is described. The paper uses the full set of Official Airline Guide (OAG) schedules for 2017 to analyse the industry structure and scale, overlap and seasonality in service provision among the groups of carriers and to understand the network organisation and capacity deployment strategy of the largest network carriers in the US market. The analysis provides evidence to explain how the large airlines are improving their cost and financial performance as well as significantly improving their operational efficiency through the achievement of high overall load factors. The sophistication in each airline’s schedule design and service delivery is highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We investigate the impact of high-speed rail (HSR) competition on airline on-time performance (OTP). • We examine profit-maximizing and welfare-maximizing levels of OTP improvement efforts by the aviation sector. • HSR competition would decrease welfare-maximizing effort levels by both airports and airlines. • The profit-maximizing airport and total effort level would also be discouraged. • The airline OTP is determined by airports and airlines' joined efforts to improve OTP and also the air traffic ("effort effect" vs. "traffic effect"). The rapid development of high-speed rail (HSR) has posed substantial competition to air transport. In this paper, we build an analytical model to investigate the impacts of HSR competition on profit-maximizing and welfare-maximizing levels of on-time performance (OTP) improvement efforts by the aviation sector (both airports and airlines), as well as the corresponding realized airline OTP levels. It is found that different from airline competition, HSR competition would decrease welfare-maximizing effort levels by both airports and airlines. The profit-maximizing airport and total effort level would also be discouraged. However, the profit-maximizing airline effort level can be raised when both total effort level by the aviation sector and inter-modal air-HSR service substitutability are sufficiently high (i.e., sufficiently low air-HSR horizontal and vertical differentiation). The airline OTP is determined by airports and airlines' joined efforts to improve OTP and also the air traffic ("effort effect" vs. "traffic effect"). The impact of HSR competition on realized airline OTP depends on the relative dominance of either effect, which does not have clear-cut conditions. Thus it is possible but not necessarily true that the airline would end up with a better OTP in the presence of HSR competition. As a result, when intervening in airline OTP, the regulator needs to differentiate OTP requirements on a route basis, considering the presence of HSR competition and the air-HSR service substitutability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for the global aviation sector to adapt and develop resilience to the potential impacts of climate change is gaining momentum. This paper expands on previous analysis by EUROCONTROL to further clarify the expected impacts for the sector. It identifies key questions to ask when considering a climate risk assessment, looks at developing a climate adaptation plan and identifies potential resilience measures. Finally, the paper presents the outcomes of a recent workshop on Adapting Aviation to a Changing Climate identifying four key priorities for action to develop climate change resilience. It concludes that identifying knowledge gaps, raising awareness and promoting collaboration are key steps in building climate change resilience for the aviation sector at both European and global level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Each day, airlines face disturbances that disrupt their carefully planned operations. Events like adverse weather conditions, sick crew members, or damaged aircraft often result in delays in the airline's schedule. An airline recovers from such disruptions through the role played by its Airline Operations Control (AOC). A Multi-Agent System (MAS) approach to airline disruption management was recently proposed under the acronym MASDIMA (Multi-Agent System for Disruption Management in AOC). The purpose of this paper is to evaluate this MAS supported AOC approach on its performance and its practical introduction. This is done using a scenario-based analysis to compare the MAS supported policy to human-team based AOC policies. A task-based analysis identifies how well AOC is able to cover a set of tasks using the MAS supported policy. The scenario-based analysis shows that the MAS supported AOC is able to find the optimal solution, and to do this significantly faster. The task-based analysis identified two main challenges for implementing the MAS supported AOC policy: i) to overcome the loss of experience that is caused by significantly automating humans roles in AOC, and ii) to reduce the workload for people that remain in AOC after its introduction. The paper concludes that implementing the MAS supported AOC policy leads to both better and faster resolutions, though the replacement of human roles also poses novel challenges that remain to be resolved: a potential increase in workload for the remaining human role and loss of experience in handling exceptional situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comprehensive gravity model in which the most important determinants for air travel demand have been identified using a two-stage least squares technique. Besides including the standard demand factors like GDP, population and tourism, the effects of other determinants such as domestic traffic, low-cost carrier (LCC) activity and public service obligations are also estimated. The profound contribution of the paper lies in the inclusion of two innovative variables in the estimations: ethnic links and aviation-dependent employment. The econometric results show that both ethnic links between countries and the share of aviation-dependent employment increase passenger demand. Moreover, the results confirm that LCC presence leads to a significant increase in passenger demand, particularly on routes where Europe’s largest LCCs, Ryanair and easyJet, are active. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developments in the airline industry in the last decade have been forcing airlines to evaluate the quality of their service performance with the goal of improving their competitive advantage. It has also become one of the most challenging tasks potentially influencing airlines' long-term success. This challenge calls for a systematic decision-aid tool that can not only handle the vagueness and conflicting nature of service quality evaluation criteria but also integrates the strengths of various multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods in a fuzzy environment. This paper aims to evaluate airline service quality in Turkey, using a combined fuzzy decision-making approach, for the first time in the literature. For this purpose, it identifies sixteen airline service quality criteria under five dimensions. The paper then describes the fuzzy DEMATEL method to deal with the interactions among the evaluation criteria. In addition, it proposes a fuzzy ANP method to consider the interdependence and calculate the relative importance of each criterion. Finally, it introduces a fuzzy VIKOR method for evaluating and ranking the service quality performance of airlines in Turkey. The paper also implements a sensitivity analysis to validate the proposed solution methodology's usefulness and practicality by testing different parameters of index values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three decades of research studies in ground delay program (GDP) decision-making, and air traffic flow management in general, have produced several analytical models and decision support tools to design GDPs with minimum delay costs. Most of these models are centralized, i.e., the central authority almost completely decides the GDP design by optimizing certain centralized objectives. In this paper, we assess the benefits of an airline-driven decentralized approach for designing GDPs. The motivation for an airline-driven approach is the ability to incorporate the inherent differences between airlines when prioritizing, and responding to, different GDP designs. Such differences arise from the airlines’ diverse business objectives and operational characteristics. We develop an integrated platform for simulating flight operations during GDPs, an airline recovery module for mimicking the recovery actions of each individual airline under a GDP, and an algorithm for fast solution of the recovery problems to optimality. While some of the individual analytical components of our framework, model and algorithm share certain similarities with those used by previous researchers, to the best of our knowledge, this paper presents the first comprehensive platform for simulating and optimizing airline operations under a GDP and is the most important technological contribution of this paper. Using this framework, we conduct detailed computational experiments based on actual schedule data at three of the busiest airports in the United States. We choose the recently developed Majority Judgment voting and grading method as our airline-driven decentralized approach for GDP design because of the superior theoretical and practical benefits afforded by this approach as shown by multiple recent studies. The results of our evaluation suggest that adopting this airline-driven approach in designing the GDPs consistently and significantly reduces airport-wide delay costs compared to the state-of-the-research centralized approaches. Moreover, the cost reduction benefits of the resultant airline-driven GDP designs are equitably distributed across different airlines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the ways in which economic regulation accommodates uncertainty through an examination of experience of regulation in Australia against a background discussion of literature on regulatory risk and principles for good regulation. Regulation, typically in the form of incentive based price caps, often applies to aviation infrastructure, such as major airports and air navigation services. At the same time, the demand for aviation infrastructure services is uncertain and subject to external shocks. Two case studies in economic regulation of aviation infrastructure are examined. They cover a period of volatile demand associated with the collapse of a major domestic airline which coincided with the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US. One case study involves the application of price caps to newly privatized airports during 1997–2002. The other case study examines the development of a long term price path for air navigation services over 2002 to 2004. The case studies illustrate the important role played by regulatory design. The paper concludes that the design of the regulatory framework has an important role in ameliorating the risks associated with uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A consensus exists in the literature on the strong link between air connectivity and economic growth and development. The need for connecting people and markets is part of national policies in different territories. The existence of remote areas, that is, those that under strict market criteria would not be transport supplied due to lack of commercial profitability, has led to the development of different public policies aimed to support air connectivity in regions where commercial airline operations are not viable. This paper provides a mapping of existing policies applied worldwide to provide air connectivity to remote areas, and critically reviews policies promoting air connectivity, including: 1) route-based policies; 2) passenger-based policies; 3) airline-based policies; and 4) airport-based policies. This effort is the first to compile and critically analyze all the existing alternatives to provide air connectivity in remote areas and to report on experiences worldwide. Moreover, we develop a novel taxonomy of existing public policies when it comes to providing air connectivity to remote areas. After reviewing different policy options and instruments applied globally, the paper ends with a policy discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disruptions are prevalent phenomenons that prevent airline from operating as original scheduled. This paper adopts the iterative fixed-point method for integer programming proposed by Dang and Ye [1] to generate feasible flight routes that are used to construct an aircraft reassignment in response to the grounding of one aircraft. Two division methods are proposed with which the solution space can be divided into several independent segments and implemented a distributed computation. The second division method is emphasized in this paper for the good performance of partial feasible flight routes which are generated by this division approach. Comparison with CPLEX CP Optimizer [2] shows that less partial feasible flight routes which are generated by Dang’s algorithm [1] are required to find an aircraft reassignment when disruptions happen, and this division method is more promising when dealing with long haul airline disruption problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the number of directions which geographical research on transport is taking has recently increased, the extent to which transport geography capitalises on theoretical advancements made in other sub-disciplines of human geography is still fairly limited. This especially pertains to economic geography which, in contrast to the predominantly positivist and quantitative transport geography, has developed over the last few decades a more post-positivist and qualitative profile. By means of focusing on passenger air transport – one of the most neglected industries in economic geography – this paper aims to help bridge this gap. Three under-researched aspects of air transport are identified and a combination of two economic-geographical approaches – global production networks (GPN) and evolutionary economic geography (EEG) – is advocated as a useful conceptual basis for further, more qualitative and more critical research on this dynamic sector. The paper argues that GPN and EEG would help research on air transport to: (1) employ network thinking beyond the infrastructural understanding of networks of air connections and thus better explain the multi-actor nature of the aviation sector, (2) complement the research on supra-national and national regulatory frameworks with more attention to the array of sub-national environments that shape the aviation industry ‘from below’, and (3) explore how the relations between aviation and economic development are moulded by different place-specific institutional factors. To lay foundations under further research the paper conceptualises the aviation industry as a global production network and uses the example of Polish passenger air transport to highlight the paper’s key empirical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When appraising code-sharing partnerships, policymakers are primarily interested in how such marketing arrangements affect prices. Expectedly, the pricing effects of code-sharing have been abundantly studied. This paper examines the impact of codeshare agreements on the itinerary routing of airline products in U.S. domestic markets. Using data from the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, we identify two main findings. First, consistent with the literature, we find that the overwhelming majority of domestic code-share itineraries involve a single operating carrier, a practice we refer to as virtual code-sharing. Second, and most importantly, we find that virtual (traditional) codeshare itineraries are associated with better (worse) path quality relative to itineraries marketed and operated by a single carrier in the same market. The path quality effects we find come from different sources. In the case of virtual code-sharing, the positive path quality effects come from both short- and long-haul markets whereas in the case of traditional code-sharing, the negative path quality effects originate from long-haul markets. • This study examines the impact of codeshare agreements on the itinerary routing of airline products. • We find that virtual codeshare itineraries are associated with better path quality relative to online itineraries. • Traditional codeshare itineraries are associated with worse path quality relative to online itineraries. • Virtual codeshare effects are robust to market haul distance while for traditional code-sharing, distance matters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Passengers' satisfaction has relevant implications in air transport system. This study wants to provide further insights in this field in order to give managers and practitioners simple and explanatory results that allow them to increase passengers' satisfaction. The paper explores passengers' satisfaction with airline services through the Classification and Regression Tree (CART) approach together with the Importance Performance Analysis (IPA). CART approach allows identifying the relevance of each service factor affecting user's satisfaction, while IPA merges the CART results with the satisfaction directly expressed by the passengers in order to identify the most critical factors. A sample of passengers travelling by direct flights has been used. The results show that passengers have great expectations in terms of staff competence and courtesy, while seem less concerned about comfort on board. In addition, as it emerges from the IPA, some services, such as boarding and landing operations, should be improved. • Travel satisfaction has notable implications for the actors of air transport system. • Deepen this field allows the relevant actors to increase passengers' satisfaction. • Travel satisfaction with airline services can be explored by CART together with IPA. • The obtained results are easily to understand and provide practical information. • Suitable strategies for increasing passengers' satisfaction can be identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We study how an HSR operator responds to the entry of an airline in a network. • The entry has a larger negative impact on the frequency of HSR service with a small number of stops. • The entry reduces the train size of HSR service with a large number of stops. • The entry may reduce social welfare. • The distribution of welfare gain from the airline entry is uneven among different markets. This paper investigates how an incumbent high-speed rail (HSR) operator responds to the entry of an airline. We find that the entry reduces frequencies of HSR service, but it reduces the frequency of HSR service with a small number of stops more. Furthermore, measuring the train size by the number of passengers carried per trip, the airline entry reduces train size of HSR service with a large number of stops, but it does not significantly affect train size of HSR service with a small number of stops. Third, the airline entry improves social welfare in most cases. However, the distribution of such welfare gain is uneven among different markets. Finally, several policy implications are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates profit margins in the U.S. airline industry at the domestic route level. The dynamic estimation methodology used not only is robust to any simultaneity/endogeneity bias by construction but also results in profit margin estimates that are highly consistent with actual profit data from the U.S. airline industry. Estimated annual profit margins have an average of about 13.3 % , with a range between 2.7 % and 42.9 % across routes. A cross-route analysis further suggests that annual profit margins increase with the market share of the largest airline serving the route, whereas they decrease with airfare. Important policy suggestions follow. • Profit margins in the U.S. airline industry are estimated at the domestic route level. • Profit margins have an average of about 13.3% across routes. • Profit margins range between 2.7% and 42.9% across routes. • Profit margins increase with the market share of the largest airline serving the route. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Airport hubs’ indirect connectivity is important for any aviation network. Indirect connectivity describes the capacity of airport hubs to provide indirect connections over the airline network. As the Chinese aviation industry has experienced development, this paper offers a comparative analysis of indirect connectivity for Chinese airport hubs between 2010 and 2015. We investigate wave-system structures, weighted indirect connectivity (WIC) and indirect connections of the top ten airport hubs in China. In the spatial analysis, this paper surveys the spatial patterns of indirect connections at four important airport hubs. Beijing-Capital airport has strong indirect connectivity worldwide. Pudong and Hongqiao airports worked together to maximize the spatial coverage of Shanghai. Guangzhou-Baiyun airport has sufficient indirect connections across southern China, and it intends to expand its spatial influence into northern cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The long-term goal of containing average warming below the 2 °C limit requires deep cuts in emissions from all sectors. The fast growing global aviation industry has committed to reduce carbon emissions. Carbon offsetting is an integral element of the sector's strategy. Already, airlines offer voluntary carbon offsetting to those customers who wish to mitigate the impact of their travel. To ensure carbon offsetting can make a meaningful and credible contribution, this paper first discusses the science behind ‘carbon offsetting’, followed by the associated policy perspective. Then, against the context of different aviation emissions pathways, the paper provides empirical evidence of current airline practices in relation to offsetting mechanisms and communication. Building on these insights, the challenges of reducing aviation emissions and using carbon credits to compensate for ongoing growth are discussed. The paper concludes by proposing five principles of best practice for carbon offsetting that airlines can use as a basis to develop credible emissions strategies, and that could inform the sectoral framework currently being developed by leading aviation organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to examine how Southeast Asian passengers' attitudes and behaviors affect their buying intention and actual purchase of Low Cost Carrier (LCC) tickets. A research model was developed based on the Theory of Planned Behavior. A survey of 791 passengers was conducted in two major airports in Thailand to test the hypotheses. Results indicated the important role of passengers' attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control in LCC passengers' buying behaviors. The paper provides LCCs with useful information about passengers’ attitudes and behaviors toward using LCC services, which will help the carriers form necessary strategies to attract more customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the effects of cooperation between rail and air infrastructures in setting per-passenger fees prior to competition among airlines and high-speed rail (HSR) in a transport network. It is shown that, for a sufficiently low degree of substitution, cooperation results in lower fees and greater HSR traffic than under competition. Besides, it leads to more connecting passengers. An empirical application allows for a quantitative assessment of cooperation. Gains to passengers and operators are sizeable when cooperation either involves all infrastructure managers or the rail and the hub airport managers. Welfare gains are in the range of 10.4–11.1%. Our contribution offers an ex-ante analysis about the benefits of intermodal cooperation at the upstream level. • An integrated intermodal network involves rail and air infrastructure providers. • Upstream cooperation may lead to lower fees and more rail traffic than competition. • An empirical application offers a quantitative assessment of cooperation. • Cooperation among infrastructure providers benefits passengers and operators. • Welfare gains are sizeable noting how cooperation may encourage high-speed rail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides evidence on US airlines' responses to the U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT) mandated disclosure of non-financial performance. We find that while all three DOT measures are associated with customer complaints, airlines are more likely to improve on-time performance rather than mishandled bags and ticket over-sales following poor prior period performance. We also find that on-time performance is the only DOT measure that is associated with future accounting performance and is significantly associated with CEO compensation after controlling for financial performance and load factor. We also provide preliminary results to show that airlines incorporate the more informative component of the on-time measure in CEO compensation. Overall, we provide new understanding of how organizations react to the disclosure of non-financial performance and use incentives to improve these measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to meet government contestability policy ambitions, the United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has undertaken a range of initiatives to create a competitive market for terminal air navigation services (TANS). This paper examines the critical dynamics underlying recent TANS service delivery changes at the nine United Kingdom airports that fall within the Single European Sky performance scheme (SES) using industry data and Porter's five forces model. Interviews with CAA, NATS and airport operators, along with publically available material, are used to explore the various elements impacting competition for TANS at these airports. Competition is intense among a very small number of companies. In addition to optimizing service cost, airport operators require greater value for money including alignment to strategic-operational goals, closer integration with other airside functions and payment structures that are performance based. Gatwick and Birmingham airports changed service provisions due to concerns about the value for money proposition offered by NATS Services Ltd (NSL). This paper also illustrates how competition has changed the customer orientation of NSL. It has been forced to evolve quickly from an expensive, perceived as somewhat arrogant, organisation to one that must be capable of aligning to the cost and service requirements of its customers. Importantly for the ATM industry this paper provides evidence that competition drives lower service costs and provides greater value for money for airlines and airport operators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides insight into how aviation and non-aviation factors affect the decision to suspend air routes. Using examples from Australian domestic routes, the paper analyses the business relationships and negotiation processes followed by airports, airlines, and destination management organizations (DMOs) to avoid air route suspensions. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with key aviation and tourism stakeholders directly impacted by suspended routes. The outcomes of this paper demonstrate that while most of the major reasons for air route suspension in Australia are mentioned in existing literature and are linked to demand, other factors have not previously been deeply investigated, including how stakeholders can be involved to avoid air route suspension. The paper also explores and identifies strengths and weaknesses in the relationship among airlines, DMOs and airports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emissions from aviation will continue to increase in the future, in contradiction of global climate policy objectives. Yet, airlines and airline organisations suggest that aviation will become climatically sustainable. This paper investigates this paradox by reviewing fuel-efficiency gains since the 1960s in comparison to aviation growth, and by linking these results to technology discourses, based on a two-tiered approach tracing technology-focused discourses over 20 years (1994–2013). Findings indicate that a wide range of solutions to growing emissions from aviation have been presented by industry, hyped in global media, and subsequently vanished to be replaced by new technology discourses. Redundant discourses often linger in the public domain, where they continue to be associated with industry aspirations of ‘sustainable aviation’ and ‘zero-emission flight’. The paper highlights and discusses a number of technology discourses that constitute ‘technology myths’, and the role these ‘myths’ may be playing in the enduring but flawed promise of sustainable aviation. We conclude that technology myths require policy-makers to interpret and take into account technical uncertainty, which may result in inaction that continues to delay much needed progress in climate policy for aviation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, aviation industry has been faced with technology challenges and safety requirements. Therefore, aircraft manufacturers give special attention to environmental building capacities regarding to passenger comfort and safety. This paper aims measuring safety and comfortability level of passenger accommodation during the flight. Since the environmental and safety issues could affect humans on a different level significance, this paper is based on the TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) method as a decision making tool for balancing those two inputs. With the aim of defining rank of existing world market aircraft the Saaty scale was used for developing the weight of different criteria whilst the improved TOPSIS method is used for ranking six aircraft: A320, A330, A340, B737, B747, B767 based on cabin environmental efficiency and safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Price cap regulation (PCR) was first implemented for privatized utilities in the UK in the 1980s. It has since been adopted by numerous countries as a regulatory regime in several sectors. This paper focuses on the development of different forms of price regulation of airports of which PCR is one variant. In countries where airport privatization is still in the early stages, the spectrum of airports and varied nature of regulatory regimes can be confusing and the lack of a general framework can itself become an obstacle to privatization. This paper proposes a general framework comprising decisions to be made for seven variables which is able to accommodate the diversity of airports and varied approaches that may be required as well as transitions between approaches. These approaches include light-handed regulation, price or revenue yield caps, rate of return regulation, earnings sharing, as well as choice of till. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically investigates the main drivers of airline network concentration in an air transport market subject to rapid growth. We consider the Brazilian air transport industry of the 2000s, in which network concentration rapidly increased and was followed by a period of massive flight delays and cancelations, which resulted in the “big blackout” of 2006–2007. We develop an econometric model of network concentration, accounting for demand, cost and competition variables that may affect the propensity of carriers to concentrate flights and passenger connections on a few airports of a network. The main focus of the paper is on the relation between networks leading to the problems of the blackout episode. We investigate the dynamic pattern of the evolution of concentration before and after the abnormal period of operations and find that concentration began to rise at least six quarters before, and persisted at a high level until two quarters after the blackout – and then plunged steeply toward the end of the decade. We believe that our analysis contributes to an improved understanding of the behavior of air transport systems subject to network concentration and congestion. With respect to methodology, we suggest and employ the use of alternative measures of network concentration to check the robustness and validity of our results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of existing studies on vulnerability analysis of multiple infrastructure systems mainly focus on negative effects of interdependencies, which mean that failures in one system can propagate to other systems and aggravate the initial damage. In reality, there also exist positive effects of interdependencies, which are shown in complementary systems and mean that if one system fails another system can provide alternative services to satisfy customers׳ demands. Different types of transportation systems in a city or country are typical complementary systems. Taking railway and airline systems in China as an example, this paper proposes a network-based approach to model the vulnerability of complementary transportation systems, and based on this model, this paper further introduces a dynamic complementary strength metric, which can help decision makers design or select better complementary topologies from the vulnerability perspective. Also, based on a simple genetic algorithm, this paper analyzes whether critical components for single systems are still important when taking two systems as a whole for analysis. Results show that a protection strategy of hardening a few critical components is also good strategy for the combined system. In addition, the findings and several assumptions are further discussed to close the gap between theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hubs are airports used by airlines as transfer points to get passengers to their destinations. Each of the five largest European hubs – Amsterdam, Charles de Gaulle, Frankfurt, Heathrow, and Madrid – is closely associated with one former national flag carrier. Some concerns exist in Europe that the expansion of the Gulf carriers with their hubs in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha threatens the existence of European hubs regarding transfer city pairs that include at least one long-haul leg. Our paper examines the actual exposure to competition by combining airline schedules data with methodology to measure competitive transfer connections. We provide the percentage of the transfer city pairs of the five largest European hubs that is exposed to competition. Further, we identify the main competitors to each of these hubs. One important result of our paper is that despite the increasing market share of Gulf carriers, the main competition for transfer traffic is still among the five largest European hubs, with Munich and Istanbul being another two strong contenders. Hence, our paper puts into perspective the competitive risk posed by Gulf carriers and their hubs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Never before have network airlines been so exposed and vulnerable to low-cost carriers (LCCs). While LCCs had 26.3% of all world seats in 2013, Southeast Asia had 57.7% and South Asia 58.4% – and these figures will only increase. There are many consequences of LCCs on network airlines, including inadequately meeting the expectations of customers, so increasing dissatisfaction, and not offering sufficient value-for-money. Clearly, it is fundamentally important for Asian network airlines to respond appropriately to LCCs. This paper looks at the strategic capability of 22 of the top Asian network airlines in competing with LCCs, which is achieved by analysing questionnaire data from these airlines in terms of 37 competitive responses across six distinct response categories. It is crucial to note that this paper only concerns their capability in competing with LCCs, and it does not consider their overall strength. This paper also investigates how strategic capability varies by Asian sub-region and by airline performance, with performance examined in two respects: by perceived performance and actual performance. The results show that strategic capability varies widely, with Vietnam Airlines possessing the strongest strategic capability to compete with LCCs and SilkAir the weakest. Of others that compete heavily with LCCs, Malaysia Airlines and Garuda Indonesia have strong capabilities, while Philippine Airlines does not. However, all three need to more forcefully respond to LCCs. As a whole, network airlines within Southeast Asia have the greatest strategic capability, and Northeast Asia the weakest. There is a reasonably strong correlation between strategic capability and both actual and perceived performance, which suggests that those airlines with strong strategic capabilities should achieve strong overall performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subjective preferences with interactive property are often involved in the evaluation of airline service quality. It may not be possible, however, to correctly evaluate service quality using conventional additive measures. The fuzzy measure, which is a non-additive measure, is more suitable for this situation. Given the presence of arduousness in current fuzzy measure identification and in the calculation of the comprehensive performance values of alternatives in terms of the Choquet integral, this paper proposes the λ k fuzzy measure and introduces Marichal entropy of the λ k fuzzy measure to reach a solution. This paper also presents the aggregator Choquet integral with respect to the λ k fuzzy measure. To verify the method's effectiveness, an application study of the comprehensive performance of 15 US airlines was conducted, using data collected over a 10-year period. Our results show that the proposed method is a suitable multi-criteria analysis method, which can be used to evaluate the performance of airline service quality when man–made interaction phenomena are not existent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the problem of searching for the right amount of time needed to wait for a passenger who is late for boarding a plane. This problem, although practically ignored by airline and handling agents' operational manuals, is common and very important for flight punctuality, and thus for both passenger satisfaction and the financial performance of air transport companies. The discrete Dynamic Programming task for finding the minimum amount of time wasted on waiting for a late passenger, depending on the moment in time in which the passenger arrives, is formally defined in this paper. The task is solved based on sample data. Dependence of the results on the average period of time needed to find the luggage of a passenger who did not arrive for boarding is examined. The paper also presents the preliminary results of the impact of the random variable describing the arrival time of the last passenger on the moment when the decision to stop waiting should be made. The function, which allows to determine the expected value of that lost time, was specified for different moments of the end of waiting by taking into account the random characteristics of the arrival of the last passenger. The obtained results show that in each of the analyzed cases there is a global minimum of that function. The moment for which the minimum occurs can be considered as the optimal (in terms of time wasted on waiting) moment to stop waiting for the late passenger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since a company can only perform as well as it is allowed to by its suppliers, the importance of supplier selection in supply chain management has been increasingly recognized. Supplier selection can best be described as a highly complex process, due to the involvement of many, sometimes conflicting, qualitative and quantitative criteria. The objective is to select the most suitable supplier(s) that meet a company’s specific needs. This paper investigates supplier selection in the airline retail industry. We discuss a number of issues that make airline retail complex and distinguish it from conventional retail. The supplier selection problem is solved by means of a two-phased methodology. In the first phase, a conjunctive screening method is used, which aims to reduce the initial set of potential suppliers prior to the comprehensive final choice phase. In the second phase, a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is used, in which suppliers are evaluated against the main criteria and sub-criteria. By combining the decision-maker’s preferences, using the developed methodology will eventually result in a ranking of suppliers that makes it possible to select the most suitable supplier(s). The proposed methodology is applied to one of the largest airlines in Europe, the Royal Dutch Airlines (KLM), and the results are discussed extensively in this paper. We conclude by proposing avenues for future research regarding the general applicability and further extensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]