How do airlines react to airport congestion? The role of networks

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between airline network structure and airport congestion. More specifically, we study the ways in which airlines adjust frequencies to delays (as a measure of airport congestion) depending on the network type they operate. Our results suggest that netwo...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Fageda, Xavier, 1975-, Flores-Fillol, Ricardo
Format: article
Status:Versión aceptada para publicación
Publication Date:2016
Country:España
Institution:Universidad de Barcelona
Repository:Dipòsit Digital de la UB
OAI Identifier:oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/107690
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/107690
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Transport aeri
Aeroports
Logística industrial
Commercial aeronautics
Airports
Business logistics
Description
Summary:In this paper, we investigate the relationship between airline network structure and airport congestion. More specifically, we study the ways in which airlines adjust frequencies to delays (as a measure of airport congestion) depending on the network type they operate. Our results suggest that network structure has a fundamental impact. Thus, while airlines operating fully-connected configurations reduce frequencies in response to more frequent delays, airlines operating hub-and-spoke structures increase frequencies. Therefore, network airlines have incentives to keep frequencies high even if this is at the expense of a greater congestion at their hub airports. This result sheds light on previously unclear results in the literature.