Air network performance and hub competitive position : evaluation of primary airports in East and South-East Asia

The growth of hub-and-spoke operations has changed the structure of competition among airlines and airports, meaning that airlines now compete both directly (air services from A to B) as well as indirectly (services from A to B via H). Traditional measures of airport performance, such as passenger enplanements and aircraft movements, fail to address indirect connectivity via hubs. This paper uses the NetScan connectivity model to compare the competitive position of 13 primary airports in East and South-East Asia between 2001 and 2007. The results reveal that Tokyo-Narita has the greatest total connectivity, and that it is composed of direct and indirect connections via other hubs. It also has the greatest hub connectivity. However, the most striking connectivity growth took place at the three major airports in mainland China: Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. The number of both direct and indirect connections at these three airports increased at a much higher rate than at other airports in the sample. Indeed, other airports, such as Osaka-Kansai and Taipei, experienced deteriorating network performance during the period of analysis. The results presented here may be helpful for airlines and airports in identifying their competitive position vis-a-vis other airlines and airports.

[1]  Tae Hoon Oum,et al.  Choice of air cargo transshipment airport: an application to air cargo traffic to/from Northeast Asia , 2005 .

[2]  Jan Veldhuis,et al.  The competitive position of airline networks , 1997 .

[3]  Harvey J. Miller,et al.  THE HUB NETWORK DESIGN PROBLEM: A REVIEW AND SYNTHESIS. , 1994 .

[4]  Guillaume Burghouwt,et al.  Temporal Configurations of European Airline Networks , 2005 .

[5]  Nigel Dennis,et al.  Scheduling strategies for airline hub operations , 1994 .

[6]  Hidenobu Matsumoto,et al.  International air network structures and air traffic density of world cities , 2007 .

[7]  M. O'Kelly,et al.  Mode Choice in a Hub-and-Spoke Network: A Zero-One Linear Programming Approach , 2010 .

[8]  Guillaume Burghouwt,et al.  The spatial configuration of airline networks in Europe , 2003 .

[9]  Joseph P Schwieterman,et al.  EXPRESS AIR CARGO IN THE PACIFIC RIM: EVALUATION OF PROSPECTIVE HUB SITES , 1994 .

[10]  Morton E. O'Kelly,et al.  Hub‐and‐Spoke Networks in Air Transportation: An Analytical Review , 1999 .

[11]  J. H. Huston,et al.  The Location of Airline Hubs , 1991 .

[12]  Mark S. Daskin,et al.  Network and Discrete Location: Models, Algorithms and Applications , 1995 .

[13]  Morton E. O'Kelly,et al.  Hub location with flow economies of scale , 1998 .

[14]  T. Aykin.  On “a quadratic integer program for the location of interacting hub facilities” , 1990 .

[15]  Joseph P Schwieterman.  AIRLINE ROUTES AND METROPOLITAN AREAS: CHANGING ACCESS TO NONSTOP SERVICE UNDER DEREGULATION , 1988 .

[16]  Nigel Dennis,et al.  Airline hub operations in Europe , 1994 .

[17]  Michael Kuby,et al.  The hub network design problem with stopovers and feeders: The case of Federal Express , 1993 .

[18]  Morton E. O'Kelly,et al.  A geographer's analysis of hub-and-spoke networks☆ , 1998 .

[19]  Joseph Berechman,et al.  An Analysis of the Effects of European Aviation Deregulation on an Airline's Network Structure and Choice of a Primary West European Hub Airport , 1996 .

[20]  Adib Kanafani,et al.  INTERNATIONAL AIRLINE HUBBING IN A COMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENT , 1987 .

[21]  Jadranka Skorin-Kapov,et al.  HUB NETWORK DESIGN WITH SINGLE AND MULTIPLE ALLOCATION: A COMPUTATIONAL STUDY , 1996 .

[22]  G. Burghouwt,et al.  The competitive position of Hub airports in the transatlantic market , 2006 .

[23]  Hidenobu Matsumoto.  INTERNATIONAL URBAN SYSTEMS AND AIR PASSENGER AND CARGO FLOWS: SOME CALCULATIONS , 2004 .

[24]  Adib Kanafani,et al.  Airline hubbing and airport economics in the pacific market , 1990 .

[25]  Morton E. O'Kelly,et al.  The Location of Interacting Hub Facilities , 1986, Transp. Sci..