Airports and airlines economics and policy: An interpretive review of recent research

This paper provides an interpretive review of recent research, concentrating on three areas where new and important insights have been derived during the last years. We present the main ideas in a general unifying framework—there is somewhat more emphasis on a unifying analytical structure, as well as a sufficiently detailed algebraic treatment, of each topic area than in most other surveys. The part on “airport congestion and pricing” is a natural sequel of the survey paper by Basso and Zhang (2007), who concentrated on theoretical airport pricing studies. We have the obvious opportunity to include more recent material, leading to a more complete guide to the literature. Similarly, the part on “airline alliances” contains up-to-date research on alliance modeling and policy. The part on “airport privatization and regulation” has not been covered by other surveys before. We also elaborate important avenues for future research.