IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jaitra/v16y2010i3p159-167.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The environmental implications of airlines' choice of aircraft size

Author

Listed:
  • Givoni, Moshe
  • Rietveld, Piet

Abstract

One of the main outcomes of open skies policies is the importance of service frequency in the competition between airlines. To keep load factors high while offering high frequency service, airlines tend to reduce the size of the aircraft used. On short-haul routes this phenomenon is even more apparent, especially on routes between hub airports, even though these routes and airports are often congested. This choice of service frequency and aircraft size must have important environmental consequences that this paper aims to evaluate and quantify. The analysis considers local air pollution, climate change and noise impacts and aims to evaluate whether the competitive environment that drives airlines to offer high frequency service carries an environmental penalty. The analysis showed that increasing aircraft size and adjusting the service frequency to offer similar seating capacity will increase local pollution but decrease climate change impact and noise pollution. When local pollution and climate change impacts are monetized and aggregated the analysis showed that environmental benefits will result from increasing aircraft size. But these benefits, in monetary terms, were found to be relatively small and sensitive to the assumptions made.

Suggested Citation

  • Givoni, Moshe & Rietveld, Piet, 2010. "The environmental implications of airlines' choice of aircraft size," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 159-167.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jaitra:v:16:y:2010:i:3:p:159-167
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2009.07.010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969699709000519
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jairtraman.2009.07.010?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wenbin Wei & Mark Hansen, 2003. "Cost Economics of Aircraft Size," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 37(2), pages 279-296, May.
    2. Givoni, Moshe & Rietveld, Piet, 2009. "Airline's choice of aircraft size - Explanations and implications," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 43(5), pages 500-510, June.
    3. Brueckner, Jan K. & Girvin, Raquel, 2008. "Airport noise regulation, airline service quality, and social welfare," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 19-37, January.
    4. Piet Rietveld & Frank Bruinsma, 1998. "Is Transport Infrastructure Effective?," Advances in Spatial Science, Springer, number 978-3-642-72232-5.
    5. Givoni, Moshe & Banister, David, 2006. "Airline and railway integration," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 13(5), pages 386-397, September.
    6. Mason, K.J., 2007. "Airframe manufacturers: Which has the better view of the future?," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 9-15.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Presto, Felix & Gollnick, Volker & Lau, Alexander & Lütjens, Klaus, 2022. "Flight frequency regulation and its temporal implications," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 106-118.
    2. D’Alfonso, Tiziana & Jiang, Changmin & Bracaglia, Valentina, 2015. "Would competition between air transport and high-speed rail benefit environment and social welfare?," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 118-137.
    3. Hansen, Mark & Liu, Yi, 2015. "Airline competition and market frequency: A comparison of the s-curve and schedule delay models," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 301-317.
    4. Gudmundsson, Sveinn & Paleari, Stefano & Redondi, Renato, 2014. "Spillover effects of the development constraints in London Heathrow Airport," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 64-74.
    5. Dobruszkes, Frédéric & Dehon, Catherine & Givoni, Moshe, 2014. "Does European high-speed rail affect the current level of air services? An EU-wide analysis," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 461-475.
    6. Zou, Bo & Hansen, Mark, 2014. "Flight delay impact on airfare and flight frequency: A comprehensive assessment," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 54-74.
    7. Park, Yongha & O'Kelly, Morton E., 2018. "Examination of cost-efficient aircraft fleets using empirical operation data in US aviation markets," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 224-234.
    8. Adler, Nicole & Gellman, Aaron, 2012. "Strategies for managing risk in a changing aviation environment," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 24-35.
    9. Wang, Kun & Gong, Qiang & Fu, Xiaowen & Fan, Xingli, 2014. "Frequency and aircraft size dynamics in a concentrated growth market: The case of the Chinese domestic market," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 50-58.
    10. Liu, Yi & Hansen, Mark & Zou, Bo, 2013. "Aircraft gauge differences between the US and Europe and their operational implications," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 1-10.
    11. Avogadro, Nicolò & Pels, Eric & Redondi, Renato, 2023. "Policy impacts on the propensity to travel by HSR in the Amsterdam – London market," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 87(PB).
    12. Yi-Kuei Lin & Cheng-Fu Huang & Yi-Chieh Liao, 2019. "Reliability of a stochastic intermodal logistics network under spoilage and time considerations," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 277(1), pages 95-118, June.
    13. Trojanek, Radoslaw & Huderek-Glapska, Sonia, 2018. "Measuring the noise cost of aviation – The association between the Limited Use Area around Warsaw Chopin Airport and property values," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 103-114.
    14. João P. Pita & Cynthia Barnhart & António P. Antunes, 2013. "Integrated Flight Scheduling and Fleet Assignment Under Airport Congestion," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 47(4), pages 477-492, November.
    15. Marcus Adolphson, 2010. "Kernel Densities and Mixed Functionality in a Multicentred Urban Region," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 37(3), pages 550-566, June.
    16. Daniel Albalate & Germá Bel, 2015. "La experiencia internacional en alta velocidad ferroviaria," Working Papers 2015-02, FEDEA.
    17. Román, Concepción & Martín, Juan Carlos, 2014. "Integration of HSR and air transport: Understanding passengers’ preferences," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 129-141.
    18. Euijune Kim & Hyewon Shin, 2014. "Impact Analysis of Economic Linkages of South Korea with North Korea Using a CGE Model," ERSA conference papers ersa14p1512, European Regional Science Association.
    19. Bergantino, Angela Stefania & Madio, Leonardo, 2020. "Intermodal competition and substitution. HSR versus air transport: Understanding the socio-economic determinants of modal choice," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    20. D’Alfonso, Tiziana & Jiang, Changmin & Bracaglia, Valentina, 2016. "Air transport and high-speed rail competition: Environmental implications and mitigation strategies," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 261-276.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jaitra:v:16:y:2010:i:3:p:159-167. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-air-transport-management/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.