Spatial Structure of Passenger Air Services in European Russia

Air service has become one of the most dynamically evolving components of the integrated transportation system in Russia and around the world. It is a major type of medium- and long-distance transportation. The spatial structure of air service has been extensively studied in geography; however, we propose an analysis of this structure using such characteristics of highest passenger importance as air travel frequency and travel time in light of all additional expenses and weighted-average fares on each route. This type of passenger travel studies is not a common practice because of the complexity of actual data collection. This work is aimed at filling this gap; it analyzes the distribution of the network of operating airports in EuropeanRussia. A typology of airlines by weighted-average fare level is presented. Three major centers that attract air passengers are identified: Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Black Sea resorts. A classification of cities is proposed according to transport accessibility from these centers in terms of air travel frequency, travel time, and fares, integrated in a single technique. It is found that assignment of a particular city to a specific class depends on its remoteness from the centers of attraction, the structure of airlines, the availability and character of alternative transport, and average time on the road from the city center to city airports. According to calculations by the proposed technique, the best transport accessibility is characteristic of the major cities of European Russia, some cities in the Extreme North and the North Caucasus; the poorest transport accessibility is characteristic of most cities in Central Russia.