Why are regional airports now a two-speed market and how can regional airports make the most of opportunities open to them?

This paper explores why regional airports are now a two-speed market and how regional airports can make the most of the opportunities open to them. Airports are often classified into different categories, depending on their amount of traffic. Regarding the so called ‘regional airports’, it is possible to categorise them into three categories based on the traffic they are handling. This paper underlines the key differences between regional airports in terms of catchment area, network, traffic right issues, non-aeronautic revenue opportunities, intermodality, profitability and quality of service. The paper goes on to show the different challenges that regional airports have to deal with, in particular in terms of aeronautic revenues and non-aeronautical revenues. To summarise, regional airports are moving from a single business-to-business relationship to a dual business-to-business and business-to-customer relationship. Finally, the paper shows the importance of traffic rights issues for regional airports and how the situation could be improved for the benefit of both customers and the local economy by providing some practical proposals.