IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transa/v55y2013icp72-88.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impact of airline differentiation on marginal cost pricing at UK airports

Author

Listed:
  • Voltes-Dorta, Augusto
  • Lei, Zheng

Abstract

Airport pricing is a central issue in international transport policies, which tend to support pricing schemes based on marginal operating costs. This paper aims to provide empirical evidence in support of increased differentiation in airport charges on the basis of marginal passenger costs being sensitive to the type of airline, i.e. full-service, low-cost, and charter. To that end, both long- and short-run multi-output cost functions are estimated over an unbalanced pool database of 29 UK airports observed between 1995 and 2009. The passenger output is hedonically-adjusted in order to introduce the desired level of disaggregation while also keeping a parsimonious specification. Results show that low-cost passengers impose significantly lower costs to airport infrastructure than those from either full-service or charter airlines. A full schedule of marginal and average incremental cost estimates for the combined passenger categories is provided for all sample airports. Taking into account the existence of returns to scale and economies of capacity, this provides a useful guide for optimal pricing of aeronautical infrastructure under either single- or dual-till regulations.

Suggested Citation

  • Voltes-Dorta, Augusto & Lei, Zheng, 2013. "The impact of airline differentiation on marginal cost pricing at UK airports," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 72-88.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:55:y:2013:i:c:p:72-88
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2013.08.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856413001481
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tra.2013.08.002?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. Starkie, David, 2012. "European airports and airlines: Evolving relationships and the regulatory implications," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 40-49.
    2. Voltes-Dorta, Augusto & Pagliari, Romano, 2012. "The impact of recession on airports' cost efficiency," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 211-222.
    3. Martín, Juan Carlos & Román, Concepción & Voltes-Dorta, Augusto, 2011. "Scale economies and marginal costs in Spanish airports," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 238-248, March.
    4. Oum, Tae H. & Yan, Jia & Yu, Chunyan, 2008. "Ownership forms matter for airport efficiency: A stochastic frontier investigation of worldwide airports," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 422-435, September.
    5. Anna Bottasso & Maurizio Conti, 2012. "The Cost Structure of the UK Airport Industry," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 46(3), pages 313-332, September.
    6. Rafael Cuesta, 2000. "A Production Model With Firm-Specific Temporal Variation in Technical Inefficiency: With Application to Spanish Dairy Farms," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 139-158, March.
    7. Jim Griffin & Mark Steel, 2007. "Bayesian stochastic frontier analysis using WinBUGS," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 27(3), pages 163-176, June.
    8. Assaf, A., 2010. "Bootstrapped scale efficiency measures of UK airports," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 42-44.
    9. Assaf, A., 2009. "Accounting for size in efficiency comparisons of airports," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 15(5), pages 256-258.
    10. van den Broeck, Julien & Koop, Gary & Osiewalski, Jacek & Steel, Mark F. J., 1994. "Stochastic frontier models : A Bayesian perspective," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 273-303, April.
    11. Barros, Carlos Pestana, 2008. "Technical efficiency of UK airports," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 175-178.
    12. Barros, Carlos Pestana, 2008. "Technical change and productivity growth in airports: A case study," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 42(5), pages 818-832, June.
    13. Assaf, A., 2010. "The cost efficiency of Australian airports post privatisation: A Bayesian methodology," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 267-273.
    14. Lei, Zheng & Papatheodorou, Andreas, 2010. "Measuring the effect of low-cost carriers on regional airports' commercial revenue," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 37-43.
    15. Christensen, Laurits R & Jorgenson, Dale W & Lau, Lawrence J, 1973. "Transcendental Logarithmic Production Frontiers," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 55(1), pages 28-45, February.
    16. Barros, Carlos Pestana & Weber, William L., 2009. "Productivity growth and biased technological change in UK airports," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 642-653, July.
    17. Barros, Carlos Pestana, 2011. "Cost efficiency of African airports using a finite mixture model," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 807-813, November.
    18. Juan Martín & Concepción Román & Augusto Voltes-Dorta, 2009. "A stochastic frontier analysis to estimate the relative efficiency of Spanish airports," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 31(3), pages 163-176, June.
    19. Richard H. Spady & Ann F. Friedlaender, 1978. "Hedonic Cost Functions for the Regulated Trucking Industry," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 9(1), pages 159-179, Spring.
    20. Heike Link & Wolfgang Götze & Veli Himanen, 2006. "Estimating the marginal costs of airport operation by using multivariate time series model with correlated error terms," Working Papers 11, Institute of Transport Economics, University of Muenster.
    21. Assaf, A. George & Gillen, David & Barros, Carlos, 2012. "Performance assessment of UK airports: Evidence from a Bayesian dynamic frontier model," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 603-615.
    22. Martín, Juan Carlos & Voltes-Dorta, Augusto, 2011. "The dilemma between capacity expansions and multi-airport systems: Empirical evidence from the industry's cost function," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 382-389, May.
    23. Lu, Ching-Chyuan & Pagliari, Romano I., 2004. "Evaluating the potential impact of alternative airport pricing approaches on social welfare," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 1-17, January.
    24. Pels, Eric & Nijkamp, Peter & Rietveld, Piet, 2003. "Inefficiencies and scale economies of European airport operations," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 341-361, September.
    25. Martín, Juan Carlos & Voltes-Dorta, Augusto, 2011. "The econometric estimation of airports' cost function," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 112-127, January.
    26. Carlin, Alan & Park, Rolla Edward, 1970. "Marginal Cost Pricing of Airport Runway Capacity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 60(3), pages 310-319, June.
    27. Martín-Cejas, Roberto Rendeiro, 1997. "Airport pricing systems in europe and an application of Ramsey pricing to Spanish airports," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 321-327, December.
    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. Karanki, Fecri & Lim, Siew Hoon, 2021. "Airport use agreements and cost efficiency of U.S. airports," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 68-77.
    2. Núñez-Sánchez, Ramón & Hidalgo-Gallego, Soraya & Martínez-San Román, Valeriano, 2020. "Airport charges and marginal costs for Spanish airports before the process of partial privatization," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 240-250.
    3. Bottasso, Anna & Conti, Maurizio & Vannoni, Davide, 2019. "Scale and (quasi) scope economies in airport technology. An application to UK airports," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 150-164.
    4. Kutlu, Levent & McCarthy, Patrick, 2016. "US airport ownership, efficiency, and heterogeneity," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 117-132.

    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. Voltes-Dorta, Augusto & Pagliari, Romano, 2012. "The impact of recession on airports' cost efficiency," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 211-222.
    2. Martín, Juan Carlos & Rodríguez-Déniz, Héctor & Voltes-Dorta, Augusto, 2013. "Determinants of airport cost flexibility in a context of economic recession," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 70-84.
    3. Tolga Ülkü & Vahidin Jeleskovic & Jürgen Müller, 2014. "How scale and institutional setting explain the costs of small airports? -An application of spatial regression analysis," MAGKS Papers on Economics 201435, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    4. Karanki, Fecri & Lim, Siew Hoon, 2021. "Airport use agreements and cost efficiency of U.S. airports," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 68-77.
    5. Martín, Juan Carlos & Voltes-Dorta, Augusto, 2011. "The econometric estimation of airports' cost function," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 112-127, January.
    6. Barros, Carlos Pestana, 2011. "Cost efficiency of African airports using a finite mixture model," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 807-813, November.
    7. Assaf, A. George & Gillen, David & Tsionas, Efthymios G., 2014. "Understanding relative efficiency among airports: A general dynamic model for distinguishing technical and allocative efficiency," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 18-34.
    8. Barros, Carlos Pestana, 2014. "Airports and tourism in Mozambique," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 76-82.
    9. Pavlyuk, Dmitry, 2016. "Implication of spatial heterogeneity for airports' efficiency estimation," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 15-24.
    10. Vogel, Hans-Arthur & Graham, Anne, 2013. "Devising airport groupings for financial benchmarking," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 32-38.
    11. Ripoll-Zarraga, Ane Elixabete & Raya, Josep Maria, 2020. "Tourism indicators and airports' technical efficiency," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    12. Kutlu, Levent & McCarthy, Patrick, 2016. "US airport ownership, efficiency, and heterogeneity," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 117-132.
    13. D’Alfonso, Tiziana & Daraio, Cinzia & Nastasi, Alberto, 2015. "Competition and efficiency in the Italian airport system: new insights from a conditional nonparametric frontier analysis," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 20-38.
    14. See, Kok Fong & Li, Fei, 2015. "Total factor productivity analysis of the UK airport industry: A Hicks-Moorsteen index method," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 1-10.
    15. Randrianarisoa, Laingo Manitra & Bolduc, Denis & Choo, Yap Yin & Oum, Tae Hoon & Yan, Jia, 2015. "Effects of corruption on efficiency of the European airports," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 65-83.
    16. lo Storto, Corrado, 2018. "Ownership structure and the technical, cost, and revenue efficiency of Italian airports," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 175-193.
    17. Germà Bel, 2013. "Local government size and efficiency in capital-intensive services: what evidence is there of economies of scale, density and scope?," Chapters, in: Santiago Lago-Peñas & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez (ed.), The Challenge of Local Government Size, chapter 6, pages 148-170, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    18. Adler, Nicole & Ülkü, Tolga & Yazhemsky, Ekaterina, 2013. "Small regional airport sustainability: Lessons from benchmarking," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 22-31.
    19. Pavlyuk, Dmitry, 2012. "Airport Benchmarking and Spatial Competition: a Critical Review," MPRA Paper 43391, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Bergantino, Angela Stefania & Intini, Mario & Volta, Nicola, 2021. "The spatial dimension of competition among airports at the worldwide level: a spatial stochastic frontier analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 295(1), pages 118-130.

    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:transa:v:55:y:2013:i:c:p:72-88. 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/547/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.