IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transb/v166y2022icp444-467.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does big data help answer big questions? The case of airport catchment areas & competition

Author

Listed:
  • Adler, Nicole
  • Brudner, Amir
  • Gallotti, Riccardo
  • Privitera, Filippo
  • Ramasco, José J.

Abstract

We develop algorithms to analyze Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) data in order to estimate individuals’ mobility at different spatial scales. Specifically, we apply the algorithms to delineate airport catchment areas in the United Kingdom’s Greater London region and to estimate ground access trip times from a very large ICT dataset. The spatial demand is regressed over demographic, socio-economic, airport-specific and ground access modal characteristics in order to determine the drivers of airport demand. Drawing on these insights, we develop a catchment area game inspired by Hotelling that analyzes the potential impact of collaboration between airports and airlines by integrating evidence of consumer behavior with producers’ financial data. We apply the game to a case study of two London airports with overlapping catchment areas for local residents. Our assessment of airline-airport vertical collusion and airport-airport horizontal collusion indicates that the former is beneficial to both producers and passengers. In contrast, whilst horizontal and vertical collusion is the equilibrium outcome in the analytic symmetric case, it is found to be less likely in the asymmetric case and the real-world, data-driven analysis, due to catchment area and cost asymmetries. Thus, such new datasets may enable regulators to overcome the long-standing information asymmetry issue that has yet to be resolved. Combining new data sources with traditional consumer surveys may provide more informed insights into both consumers’ and producers’ actions, which determines the need (or lack thereof) for regulatory intervention in aviation markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Adler, Nicole & Brudner, Amir & Gallotti, Riccardo & Privitera, Filippo & Ramasco, José J., 2022. "Does big data help answer big questions? The case of airport catchment areas & competition," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 444-467.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transb:v:166:y:2022:i:c:p:444-467
    DOI: 10.1016/j.trb.2022.10.013
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191261522001795
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.trb.2022.10.013?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. Adler, Nicole & Liebert, Vanessa, 2014. "Joint impact of competition, ownership form and economic regulation on airport performance and pricing," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 92-109.
    2. Anastasios Noulas & Salvatore Scellato & Renaud Lambiotte & Massimiliano Pontil & Cecilia Mascolo, 2012. "A Tale of Many Cities: Universal Patterns in Human Urban Mobility," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(5), pages 1-10, May.
    3. Sun, Xiaoqian & Wandelt, Sebastian & Zhang, Anming, 2021. "Comparative accessibility of Chinese airports and high-speed railway stations: A high-resolution, yet scalable framework based on open data," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    4. Pels, Eric & Nijkamp, Peter & Rietveld, Piet, 2003. "Access to and competition between airports: a case study for the San Francisco Bay area," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 71-83, January.
    5. Merkert, Rico & Beck, Matthew, 2017. "Value of travel time savings and willingness to pay for regional aviation," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 29-42.
    6. Barbot, Cristina, 2009. "Airport and airlines competition: Incentives for vertical collusion," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 43(10), pages 952-965, December.
    7. Lieshout, Rogier, 2012. "Measuring the size of an airport’s catchment area," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 27-34.
    8. Lieshout, Rogier & Malighetti, Paolo & Redondi, Renato & Burghouwt, Guillaume, 2016. "The competitive landscape of air transport in Europe," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 68-82.
    9. Eric Pels & Peter Nijkamp & Piet Rietveld, 2001. "Airport and Airline Choice in a Multiple Airport Region: An Empirical Analysis for the San Francisco Bay Area," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(1), pages 1-9.
    10. Nash, John, 1950. "The Bargaining Problem," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 18(2), pages 155-162, April.
    11. Andreyeva, T. & Long, M.W. & Brownell, K.D., 2010. "The impact of food prices on consumption: A systematic review of research on the price elasticity of demand for food," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 100(2), pages 216-222.
    12. Fröhlich, Karsten & Niemeier, Hans-Martin, 2011. "The importance of spatial economics for assessing airport competition," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 44-48.
    13. Géarard Gaudet & Ngo Van Long, 1996. "Vertical Integration, Foreclosure, and profits in the Presence of Double Marginalization," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(3), pages 409-432, September.
    14. Gillen, David, 2011. "The evolution of airport ownership and governance," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 3-13.
    15. Maxime Lenormand & Miguel Picornell & Oliva G Cantú-Ros & Antònia Tugores & Thomas Louail & Ricardo Herranz & Marc Barthelemy & Enrique Frías-Martínez & José J Ramasco, 2014. "Cross-Checking Different Sources of Mobility Information," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(8), pages 1-10, August.
    16. Del Chiappa, Giacomo & Martin, Juan Carlos & Roman, Concepcion, 2016. "Service quality of airports' food and beverage retailers. A fuzzy approach," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 105-113.
    17. Starkie, David, 2002. "Airport regulation and competition," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 63-72.
    18. Riccardo Gallotti & Armando Bazzani & Sandro Rambaldi & Marc Barthelemy, 2016. "A stochastic model of randomly accelerated walkers for human mobility," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 7(1), pages 1-7, November.
    19. Filippo Simini & Marta C. González & Amos Maritan & Albert-László Barabási, 2012. "A universal model for mobility and migration patterns," Nature, Nature, vol. 484(7392), pages 96-100, April.
    20. Teraji, Yusuke & Morimoto, Yu, 2014. "Price competition of airports and its effect on the airline network," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 3(1), pages 45-57.
    21. Anna Bottasso & Maurizio Conti, 2012. "The Cost Structure of the UK Airport Industry," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 46(3), pages 313-332, September.
    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. Yan, Ran & Liu, Yan & Wang, Shuaian, 2024. "A data-driven optimization approach to improving maritime transport efficiency," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    2. Yao, Haifang & Huang, Yingying & Liu, Jinsong, 2023. "Study on travel behavior characteristics of air passengers in an airport hinterland," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    3. Cordera, Rubén & Luigi dell’Olio, & Sipone, Silvia & Moura, José Luis, 2024. "Modeling airport choice for a multi-airport area using a random parameter logit model," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    4. Yirgu, Kaleab Woldeyohannes & Kim, Amy M., 2024. "Airport choices and resulting catchments in the U.S. Midwest," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 114(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. Tavalaei, M. Mahdi & Santalo, Juan, 2019. "Pure versus hybrid competitive strategies in the airport industry," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 444-455.
    2. Bringmann, Katja & De Langhe, Katrien & Kupfer, Franziska & Sys, Christa & Van de Voorde, Eddy & Vanelslander, Thierry, 2018. "Cooperation between airports: A focus on the financial intertwinement of European airport operators," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 59-71.
    3. Voltes-Dorta, Augusto & Becker, Eliad, 2018. "The potential short-term impact of a Hyperloop service between San Francisco and Los Angeles on airport competition in California," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 45-56.
    4. Zeigler, Patrick & Pagliari, Romano & Suau-Sanchez, Pere & Malighetti, Paolo & Redondi, Renato, 2017. "Low-cost carrier entry at small European airports: Low-cost carrier effects on network connectivity and self-transfer potential," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 68-79.
    5. Teixeira, Filipe Marques & Derudder, Ben, 2021. "Spatio-temporal dynamics in airport catchment areas: The case of the New York Multi Airport Region," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    6. Fu, Xiaowen & Homsombat, Winai & Oum, Tae H., 2011. "Airport–airline vertical relationships, their effects and regulatory policy implications," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 17(6), pages 347-353.
    7. D’Alfonso, Tiziana & Nastasi, Alberto, 2012. "Vertical relations in the air transport industry: A facility-rivalry game," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(5), pages 993-1008.
    8. Fuellhart, Kurt & O’Connor, Kevin & Woltemade, Christopher, 2013. "Route-level passenger variation within three multi-airport regions in the USA," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 171-180.
    9. Graham, Prof Anne, 2020. "Airport privatisation: A successful journey?," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    10. Chen, Ya & Li, Xue & Zhang, Richong & Huang, Zi-Gang & Lai, Ying-Cheng, 2020. "Instantaneous success and influence promotion in cyberspace — how do they occur?," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 556(C).
    11. Volodymyr Bilotkach & Harry Bush, 2020. "Airport competition from airports’ perspective: Evidence from a survey of European airports," Competition and Regulation in Network Industries, , vol. 21(3), pages 275-296, September.
    12. Escobari, Diego, 2017. "Airport, airline and departure time choice and substitution patterns: An empirical analysis," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 198-210.
    13. Bergantino, Angela Stefania & Intini, Mario & Volta, Nicola, 2020. "Spatial competition and efficiency: an investigation in the airport sector," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1287, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    14. Barbot, Cristina & D’Alfonso, Tiziana & Malighetti, Paolo & Redondi, Renato, 2013. "Vertical collusion between airports and airlines: An empirical test for the European case," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 3-15.
    15. Zhang, Anming & Fu, Xiaowen & Yang, Hangjun (Gavin), 2010. "Revenue sharing with multiple airlines and airports," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 44(8-9), pages 944-959, September.
    16. Tiziana D'Alfonso & Alberto Nastasi, 2010. "Vertical Agreements Between Airports And Carriers," DIS Technical Reports 2010-19, Department of Computer, Control and Management Engineering, Universita' degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza".
    17. Li, Zhi-Chun & Tu, Ningwen & Fu, Xiaowen & Sheng, Dian, 2022. "Modeling the effects of airline and high-speed rail cooperation on multi-airport systems: The implications on congestion, competition and social welfare," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 448-478.
    18. Ryerson, Megan S. & Kim, Amy M., 2018. "A drive for better air service: How air service imbalances across neighboring regions integrate air and highway demands," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 114(PA), pages 237-255.
    19. Bergantino, Angela Stefania & Intini, Mario & Volta, Nicola, 2021. "The spatial dimension of competition among airports at the worldwide level: a spatial stochastic frontier analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 295(1), pages 118-130.
    20. Kenneth Button, 2020. "Studying the empirical implications of the liberalization of airport markets," Competition and Regulation in Network Industries, , vol. 21(3), pages 223-243, September.

    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:transb:v:166:y:2022:i:c:p:444-467. 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/548/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.