IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/trapol/v59y2017icp28-37.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Licence to build, licence to charge? Market power, pricing and the financing of airport infrastructure development in Australia

Author

Listed:
  • Lohmann, Gui
  • Trischler, Jakob

Abstract

In 2017, airport privatisation in Australia reached a 20-year milestone, with its regulatory framework been shifted to a light-handed regulation in 2002. The light-handed regulation (LHR), as in place at Australia's top four airports, has been suggested as the ‘frontier of international policy’, leading to increasing interest among transport policymakers and researchers. This article offers an in-depth examination of the LHR with focus on a) the market-power of the regulated airports, b) the commercial price negotiations between airports and airlines, and c) the airports' behaviour towards infrastructure investment. The article reports on data from 21 semi-structured interviews conducted with key stakeholder groups affected by, or with expertise in, the LHR. Findings suggest that despite airports possessing significant market power, particularly in the domestic market, the light-handed approach seems to balance the forces in a market where an airline duopoly prevails (Qantas and Virgin Australia groups). In addition, both airports and airlines perceive that commercial price negotiations are improving and refrain from a return to a stronger regulation environment. For airlines, value-for-money is the primary concern in new infrastructure investments. Interviewees also outlined specific recommendations for improving the LHR framework, including a more accessible arbitrator and improved methodologies to monitor prices and quality of service. The findings point towards the significance of vertical relationships, long-term arrangements, and transparency as key aspects of the LHR and the development of airport infrastructure.

Suggested Citation

  • Lohmann, Gui & Trischler, Jakob, 2017. "Licence to build, licence to charge? Market power, pricing and the financing of airport infrastructure development in Australia," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 28-37.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:trapol:v:59:y:2017:i:c:p:28-37
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2017.06.009
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967070X16303833
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tranpol.2017.06.009?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. repec:bla:ecorec:v:62:y:1986:i:177:p:145-62 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Polk, Andreas & Bilotkach, Volodymyr, 2013. "The assessment of market power of hub airports," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 29-37.
    3. Hangjun Yang & Anming Zhang & Xiaowen Fu, 2015. "Determinants of Airport-Airline Vertical Arrangements: Analytical Results and Empirical Evidence," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 49(3), pages 438-453, July.
    4. Tae H. Oum & Xiaowen Fu, 2008. "Impacts of Airports on Airline Competition: Focus on Airport Performance and Airport-Airline Vertical Relations," OECD/ITF Joint Transport Research Centre Discussion Papers 2008/17, OECD Publishing.
    5. Laffont, Jean-Jacques & Tirole, Jean, 1986. "Using Cost Observation to Regulate Firms," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(3), pages 614-641, June.
    6. Simon Domberger & John Piggott, 1986. "Privatization Policies and Public Enterprise: A Survey," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 62(2), pages 145-162, June.
    7. Productivity Commission, 2006. "Review of Price Regulation of Airports Services," Inquiry Reports, Productivity Commission, Government of Australia, number 40.
    8. Malcolm Abbott & Bruce Cohen, 2014. "A Survey of the Privatisation of Government-Owned Enterprises in Australia since the 1980s," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 47(4), pages 432-454, December.
    9. Littlechild, Stephen C., 2012. "Australian airport regulation: Exploring the frontier," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 50-62.
    10. Schuster, Dominic, 2009. "Australia's approach to airport charges: The Sydney Airport experience," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 121-126.
    11. Golaszewski, Richard, 2003. "Network industries in collision: aviation infrastructure capacity, financing and the exposure to traffic declines," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 57-65.
    12. 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.
    13. Cristina Barbot, 2011. "Vertical Contracts between Airports and Airlines Is there a Trade-off between Welfare and Competitiveness?," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 45(2), pages 277-302, May.
    14. Xiaowen Fu & Mark Lijesen & Tae H. Oum, 2006. "An Analysis of Airport Pricing and Regulation in the Presence of Competition Between Full Service Airlines and Low Cost Carriers," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 40(3), pages 425-447, September.
    15. Vogelsang, Ingo, 2002. "Incentive Regulation and Competition in Public Utility Markets: A 20-Year Perspective," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 5-27, July.
    16. Biggar Darryl, 2009. "Is Protecting Sunk Investments by Consumers a Key Rationale for Natural Monopoly Regulation?," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 8(2), pages 1-25, June.
    17. Chris Aulich & Mark Hughes, 2013. "Privatizing Australian Airports: Ownership, Divestment and Financial Performance," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 175-184, June.
    18. Gillen, David, 2011. "The evolution of airport ownership and governance," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 3-13.
    19. Arblaster, Margaret, 2016. "Negotiate-arbitrate regulation of airport services: Twenty years of experience in Australia," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 27-38.
    20. Michael O'Donnell & Miriam Glennie & Peter O'Keefe & Seung-Ho Kwon, 2011. "Privatisation and ‘Light-Handed’ Regulation: Sydney Airport," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 22(1), pages 65-80, May.
    21. Arblaster, Margaret, 2014. "The design of light-handed regulation of airports: Lessons from experience in Australia and New Zealand," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 27-35.
    22. 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.
    23. 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.
    24. Arblaster, Margaret & Hooper, Paul, 2015. "Light handed regulation–Can it play a role in the developing world?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 32-41.
    25. Adler, Nicole & Forsyth, Peter & Mueller, Juergen & Niemeier, Hans-Martin, 2015. "An economic assessment of airport incentive regulation," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 5-15.
    26. Darryl Biggar, 2012. "Why Regulate Airports? A Re-examination of the Rationale for Airport Regulation," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 46(3), pages 367-380, September.
    27. Barbot, Cristina, 2009. "Airport and airlines competition: Incentives for vertical collusion," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 43(10), pages 952-965, December.
    28. Tretheway, Michael W. & Markhvida, Kate, 2014. "The aviation value chain: Economic returns and policy issues," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 3-16.
    29. A. Michael Spence, 1975. "Monopoly, Quality, and Regulation," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 6(2), pages 417-429, Autumn.
    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. Trischler, Jakob & Lohmann, Gui, 2018. "Monitoring quality of service at Australian airports: A critical analysis," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 63-71.
    2. Littlechild, Stephen, 2018. "Economic regulation of privatised airports: Some lessons from UK experience," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 114(PA), pages 100-114.
    3. Kistler, Beat & Trischler, Jakob & Lohmann, Gui, 2018. "Passenger representation within the light-handed regulation – Insights from the Australian air transport market," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 106-115.
    4. Stephenson, Caitlin & Lohmann, Gui & Spasojevic, Bojana, 2018. "Stakeholder engagement in the development of international air services: A case study on Adelaide Airport," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 45-54.

    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. Littlechild, Stephen, 2018. "Economic regulation of privatised airports: Some lessons from UK experience," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 114(PA), pages 100-114.
    2. Yang, Hangjun & Fu, Xiaowen, 2015. "A comparison of price-cap and light-handed airport regulation with demand uncertainty," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 122-132.
    3. Trischler, Jakob & Lohmann, Gui, 2018. "Monitoring quality of service at Australian airports: A critical analysis," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 63-71.
    4. Kistler, Beat & Trischler, Jakob & Lohmann, Gui, 2018. "Passenger representation within the light-handed regulation – Insights from the Australian air transport market," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 106-115.
    5. Xiao, Yibin & Fu, Xiaowen & Zhang, Anming, 2016. "Airport capacity choice under airport-airline vertical arrangements," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 298-309.
    6. Arblaster, Margaret, 2016. "Negotiate-arbitrate regulation of airport services: Twenty years of experience in Australia," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 27-38.
    7. Xiao, Yi-bin & Fu, Xiaowen & Oum, Tae H. & Yan, Jia, 2017. "Modeling airport capacity choice with real options," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 93-114.
    8. Choo, Yap Yin & Corbo, Leonardo & Wang, Kun, 2018. "Joint impact of airline market structure and airport ownership on airport market power and profit margin," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 67-78.
    9. Hangjun Yang & Anming Zhang, 2011. "Price-cap regulation of congested airports," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 39(3), pages 293-312, June.
    10. Nerja, A. & Sánchez, M., 2021. "The effects of concession revenue sharing contracts in airport competition," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 28(C).
    11. Tsunoda, Yushi, 2023. "Airport concession revenue sharing and entry deterrence," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 33(C).
    12. 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.
    13. Nerja, Adrián, 2022. "Exclusivity in concession revenue sharing contracts," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    14. Barbot, Cristina & D'Alfonso, Tiziana, 2014. "Why do contracts between airlines and airports fail?," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 34-41.
    15. Georges Assaf, A. & Gillen, David, 2012. "Measuring the joint impact of governance form and economic regulation on airport efficiency," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 220(1), pages 187-198.
    16. Arblaster, Margaret, 2014. "The design of light-handed regulation of airports: Lessons from experience in Australia and New Zealand," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 27-35.
    17. Valdes, Victor & Corzo, Oscar & Canfield, Carlos, 2024. "Airport incentive regulation in practice," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    18. Ha, Hun-Koo & Wan, Yulai & Yoshida, Yuichiro & Zhang, Anming, 2013. "Airline market structure and airport efficiency: Evidence from major Northeast Asian airports," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 32-42.
    19. Saraswati, Batari & Hanaoka, Shinya, 2014. "Airport–airline cooperation under commercial revenue sharing agreements: A network approach," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 17-33.
    20. 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.

    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:trapol:v:59:y:2017:i:c:p:28-37. 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/30473/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.