IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transa/v118y2018icp648-661.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can airfares tell? An alternative empirical strategy for airport congestion internalization

Author

Listed:
  • Guo, Huanxiu
  • Jiang, Changmin
  • Wan, Yulai

Abstract

In this paper, we propose an alternative empirical strategy to test whether airlines internalize airport congestion corresponding to their share of traffic at the airport. In particular, we construct a hypothesis from theoretical derivation that if airlines do internalize airport congestion the airfare prices would be positively correlated with the interactive term of the airline’s passenger number at the origin airport and the congestion delay level of this airport. We test this hypothesis with the Airline Origin and Destination Survey (DB1B) database and the Airline On-Time Performance database published by the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS). We find that the hypothesis is supported by the data, suggesting that airlines’ behaviour is in line with the internalization theory. We further implement subsample analysis and find that airline type also plays a role in this matter. In particular, while full service carriers internalize airport congestion, low cost carriers do not.

Suggested Citation

  • Guo, Huanxiu & Jiang, Changmin & Wan, Yulai, 2018. "Can airfares tell? An alternative empirical strategy for airport congestion internalization," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 648-661.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:118:y:2018:i:c:p:648-661
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2018.10.012
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856417315999
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tra.2018.10.012?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. Brueckner, Jan K., 2005. "Internalization of airport congestion: A network analysis," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 23(7-8), pages 599-614, September.
    2. Connan Snider & Jonathan W. Williams, 2015. "Barriers to Entry in the Airline Industry: A Multidimensional Regression-Discontinuity Analysis of AIR-21," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 97(5), pages 1002-1022, December.
    3. Zhang, Anming & Czerny, Achim I., 2012. "Airports and airlines economics and policy: An interpretive review of recent research," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 15-34.
    4. Daniel, Joseph I, 1995. "Congestion Pricing and Capacity of Large Hub Airports: A Bottleneck Model with Stochastic Queues," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 63(2), pages 327-370, March.
    5. Forbes, Silke J., 2008. "The effect of air traffic delays on airline prices," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 1218-1232, September.
    6. Federico Ciliberto & Jonathan W. Williams, 2014. "Does multimarket contact facilitate tacit collusion? Inference on conduct parameters in the airline industry," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 45(4), pages 764-791, December.
    7. Hangjun Yang & Anming Zhang, 2011. "Price-cap regulation of congested airports," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 39(3), pages 293-312, June.
    8. Rupp, Nicholas G., 2009. "Do carriers internalize congestion costs? Empirical evidence on the internalization question," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 24-37, January.
    9. Severin Borenstein, 1989. "Hubs and High Fares: Dominance and Market Power in the U.S. Airline Industry," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 20(3), pages 344-365, Autumn.
    10. Basso, Leonardo J. & Zhang, Anming, 2007. "Congestible facility rivalry in vertical structures," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 218-237, March.
    11. Jan K. Brueckner, 2002. "Airport Congestion When Carriers Have Market Power," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(5), pages 1357-1375, December.
    12. Tiziana D'Alfonso & Changmin Jiang & Yulai Wan, 2013. "Airport Pricing, Concession Revenues and Passenger Types," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 47(1), pages 71-89, January.
    13. Tae Hoon Oum & Anming Zhang & Yimin Zhang, 2004. "Alternative Forms of Economic Regulation and their Efficiency Implications for Airports," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 38(2), pages 217-246, May.
    14. Changmin Jiang & Yulai Wan & Tiziana D'Alfonso, 2015. "Strategic Choice of Alliance Membership under Local Competition and Global Networks," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 49(2), pages 316-337, April.
    15. Schank, Joshua L., 2005. "Solving airside airport congestion: Why peak runway pricing is not working," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 11(6), pages 417-425.
    16. Daniel, Joseph I. & Harback, Katherine Thomas, 2008. "(When) Do hub airlines internalize their self-imposed congestion delays?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 583-612, March.
    17. Zhang, Anming & Zhang, Yimin, 2006. "Airport capacity and congestion when carriers have market power," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 229-247, September.
    18. Gillen, David & Jacquillat, Alexandre & Odoni, Amedeo R., 2016. "Airport demand management: The operations research and economics perspectives and potential synergies," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 495-513.
    19. Pels, Eric & Verhoef, Erik T., 2004. "The economics of airport congestion pricing," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 257-277, March.
    20. Nombela, Gustavo & de Rus, Gines & Betancor, Ofelia, 2004. "Internalizing airport congestion," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 323-331, December.
    21. Czerny, Achim I. & Zhang, Anming, 2011. "Airport congestion pricing and passenger types," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 595-604, March.
    22. Jiang, Changmin & Zhang, Anming, 2015. "Airport congestion pricing and terminal investment: Effects of terminal congestion, passenger types, and concessionsAuthor-Name: Wan, Yulai," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 91-113.
    23. Silva, Hugo E. & Verhoef, Erik T., 2013. "Optimal pricing of flights and passengers at congested airports and the efficiency of atomistic charges," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 1-13.
    24. Czerny, Achim I. & Zhang, Anming, 2014. "Airport congestion pricing when airlines price discriminate," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 77-89.
    25. Achim Czerny, 2006. "Price-cap Regulation of Airports: Single-till Versus Dual-till," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 30(1), pages 85-97, July.
    26. Santos, Georgina & Robin, Maël, 2010. "Determinants of delays at European airports," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 392-403, March.
    27. Redondi, Renato & Gudmundsson, Sveinn Vidar, 2016. "Congestion spill effects of Heathrow and Frankfurt airports on connection traffic in European and Gulf hub airports," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 287-297.
    28. Michael Mazzeo, 2003. "Competition and Service Quality in the U.S. Airline Industry," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 22(4), pages 275-296, June.
    29. Bubalo, Branko & Gaggero, Alberto A., 2015. "Low-cost carrier competition and airline service quality in Europe," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 23-31.
    30. Greenfield, Daniel, 2014. "Competition and service quality: New evidence from the airline industry," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 3(1), pages 80-89.
    31. Bendinelli, William E. & Bettini, Humberto F.A.J. & Oliveira, Alessandro V.M., 2016. "Airline delays, congestion internalization and non-price spillover effects of low cost carrier entry," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 39-52.
    32. Christopher Mayer & Todd Sinai, 2003. "Network Effects, Congestion Externalities, and Air Traffic Delays: Or Why Not All Delays Are Evil," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(4), pages 1194-1215, September.
    33. 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.
    34. Kristopher S. Gerardi & Adam Hale Shapiro, 2009. "Does Competition Reduce Price Dispersion? New Evidence from the Airline Industry," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 117(1), pages 1-37, February.
    35. Hugo E. Silva & Erik T. Verhoef, 2011. "Optimal Pricing of Flights and Passengers at Congested Airports: The Efficiency of Atomistic Charges," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 11-179/3, Tinbergen Institute, revised 28 Mar 2013.
    36. Ater, Itai, 2012. "Internalization of congestion at US hub airports," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 196-209.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Brito, Igor R.S. & Oliveira, Alessandro V.M. & Dresner, Martin E., 2021. "An econometric study of the effects of airport privatization on airfares in Brazil," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 338-349.
    2. Yimga, Jules, 2024. "The on-time performance effects of a policy change in airport slot restrictions: A synthetic control analysis," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    3. Calzada, Joan & Fageda, Xavier, 2023. "Airport dominance, route network design and flight delays," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).

    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. Miranda, Victor A.P. & Oliveira, Alessandro V.M., 2018. "Airport slots and the internalization of congestion by airlines: An empirical model of integrated flight disruption management in Brazil," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 201-219.
    2. Jiang, Changmin & Zhang, Anming, 2015. "Airport congestion pricing and terminal investment: Effects of terminal congestion, passenger types, and concessionsAuthor-Name: Wan, Yulai," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 91-113.
    3. Gillen, David & Jacquillat, Alexandre & Odoni, Amedeo R., 2016. "Airport demand management: The operations research and economics perspectives and potential synergies," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 495-513.
    4. Dixit, Aasheesh & Jakhar, Suresh Kumar, 2021. "Airport capacity management: A review and bibliometric analysis," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    5. Silva, Hugo E. & Verhoef, Erik T. & van den Berg, Vincent A.C., 2014. "Airlines’ strategic interactions and airport pricing in a dynamic bottleneck model of congestion," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 13-27.
    6. Zhang, Anming & Czerny, Achim I., 2012. "Airports and airlines economics and policy: An interpretive review of recent research," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 15-34.
    7. Calzada, Joan & Fageda, Xavier, 2023. "Airport dominance, route network design and flight delays," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    8. William E. Bendinelli & Humberto F. A. J. Bettini & Alessandro V. M. Oliveira, 2024. "Airline delays, congestion internalization and non-price spillover effects of low cost carrier entry," Papers 2401.09174, arXiv.org.
    9. Kidokoro, Yukihiro & Zhang, Anming, 2018. "Airport congestion pricing and cost recovery with side business," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 114(PA), pages 222-236.
    10. Silva, Hugo E. & Verhoef, Erik T., 2013. "Optimal pricing of flights and passengers at congested airports and the efficiency of atomistic charges," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 1-13.
    11. Ater, Itai, 2012. "Internalization of congestion at US hub airports," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 196-209.
    12. Bendinelli, William E. & Bettini, Humberto F.A.J. & Oliveira, Alessandro V.M., 2016. "Airline delays, congestion internalization and non-price spillover effects of low cost carrier entry," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 39-52.
    13. Roucolle, Chantal & Seregina, Tatiana & Urdanoz, Miguel, 2020. "Network development and excess travel time," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 139-152.
    14. Verhoef, Erik T. & Silva, Hugo E., 2017. "Dynamic equilibrium at a congestible facility under market power," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 174-192.
    15. Boffa, Federico & Fedele, Alessandro & Iozzi, Alberto, 2023. "Congestion and incentives in the age of driverless fleets," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    16. Czerny, Achim I. & Cowan, Simon & Zhang, Anming, 2017. "How to mix per-flight and per-passenger based airport charges: The oligopoly case," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 483-500.
    17. Czerny, Achim I. & Zhang, Anming, 2014. "Airport peak-load pricing revisited: The case of peak and uniform tolls," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 3(1), pages 90-101.
    18. Achim I. Czerny, 2012. "Public Versus Private Airport Behavior When Concession Revenues Exist," WHU Working Paper Series - Economics Group 12-01, WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management.
    19. Brueckner, Jan K., 2009. "Price vs. quantity-based approaches to airport congestion management," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(5-6), pages 681-690, June.
    20. Jan K. Brueckner, 2008. "Slot-Based Approaches to Airport Congestion Management," CESifo Working Paper Series 2302, CESifo.

    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:transa:v:118:y:2018:i:c:p:648-661. 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.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/547/description#description .

    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.