IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jaitra/v1y1994i1p5-14.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Airline market concentration

Author

Listed:
  • Belobaba, Peter P.
  • Van Acker, Jan

Abstract

Changes in competition in selected US domestic airline markets since deregulation of the airline industry are examined in this paper, focusing on both the top 100 markets and the largest markets out of dominated cities. Our analysis of carrier concentration in origin-destination markets since 1978 shows an increasing trend in concentration in recent years, after an initial period of decreases. The average concentration levels in the top 100 markets were still lower in 1991 than in 1979. At the same time, average concentration levels in 150 markets out of ‘dominated’ cities had returned to 1979 levels by 1991, after reaching a low point in 1985. Both the increases in competition that occurred during the first years of deregulation and the subsequent decreases can be explained by two structural changes experienced in the US airline industry: the numerous mergers of large carriers during the late 1980s and, more important, the development of extensive hub and spoke networks by virtually all airlines.

Suggested Citation

  • Belobaba, Peter P. & Van Acker, Jan, 1994. "Airline market concentration," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 5-14.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jaitra:v:1:y:1994:i:1:p:5-14
    DOI: 10.1016/0969-6997(94)90026-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0969699794900264
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/0969-6997(94)90026-4?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. Severin Borenstein, 1989. "Hubs and High Fares: Dominance and Market Power in the U.S. Airline Industry," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 20(3), pages 344-365, Autumn.
    2. Hurdle, Gloria J, et al, 1989. "Concentration, Potential Entry, and Performance in the Airline Industry," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(2), pages 119-139, December.
    3. Morrison, Steven A & Winston, Clifford, 1990. "The Dynamics of Airline Pricing and Competition," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(2), pages 389-393, May.
    4. Morrison, Steven A & Winston, Clifford, 1987. "Empirical Implications and Tests of the Contestability Hypothesis," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 30(1), pages 53-66, April.
    5. Curry, B & George, K D, 1983. "Industrial Concentration: A Survey," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 203-255, March.
    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. Zhang, Qiong & Yang, Hangjun & Wang, Qiang & Zhang, Anming & Zhang, Yahua, 2020. "Impact of high-speed rail on market concentration and Lerner index in China's airline market," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    2. Cosmas, Alex & Love, Robert & Rajiwade, Swapnil & Linz, Marco, 2013. "Market clustering and performance of U.S. OD markets," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 20-25.
    3. Grosche, Tobias & Klophaus, Richard & Seredyński, Adam, 2020. "Market concentration in German air transport before and after the Air Berlin bankruptcy," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 78-88.
    4. Zhang, Qiong & Yang, Hangjun & Wang, Qiang & Zhang, Anming, 2014. "Market power and its determinants in the Chinese airline industry," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 1-13.
    5. Hüschelrath, Kai & Müller, Kathrin, 2011. "Low cost carriers and the evolution of the US airline industry," ZEW Discussion Papers 11-051, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.

    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. Severin Borenstein, 1992. "The Evolution of U.S. Airline Competition," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 6(2), pages 45-73, Spring.
    2. Maria José Gil-Moltó & Claudio A. Piga, 2007. "Entry and Exit in a Liberalised Market," Rivista di Politica Economica, SIPI Spa, vol. 97(1), pages 3-38, January-F.
    3. Britto, Rodrigo & Dresner, Martin & Voltes, Augusto, 2012. "The impact of flight delays on passenger demand and societal welfare," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 460-469.
    4. Bania, Neil & Bauer, Paul W. & Zlatoper, Thomas J., 1998. "U.S. Air Passenger Service: a Taxonomy of Route Networks, Hub Locations, and Competition," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 53-74, March.
    5. Anderson, William P. & Gong, Gang & Lakshmanan, T.R., 2005. "Competition in a Deregulated Market for Air Travel: The U.S. Domestic Experience and Lessons for Global Markets," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 3-25, January.
    6. Yuxiu Chen & Jian Yu & Sang-Bing Tsai & Jinfu Zhu, 2018. "An Empirical Study on the Indirect Impact of Flight Delay on China’s Economy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-13, January.
    7. David Encaoua, 1996. "Ouverture à la concurrence des activités en réseau. Le cas du transport aérien européen," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 47(6), pages 1269-1296.
    8. Moreno-Izquierdo, L. & Ramón-Rodríguez, A. & Perles Ribes, J., 2015. "The impact of the internet on the pricing strategies of the European low cost airlines," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 246(2), pages 651-660.
    9. Damien J. Neven & Lars-Hendrik Röller & Zhentang Zhang, 1997. "Union Power and Product Market Competition: Evidence from the Airline Industry," CIG Working Papers FS IV 97-38, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB), Research Unit: Competition and Innovation (CIG).
    10. Michael Mazzeo, 2003. "Competition and Service Quality in the U.S. Airline Industry," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 22(4), pages 275-296, June.
    11. Fukui, Hideki, 2019. "How do slot restrictions affect airfares? New evidence from the US airline industry," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 17(C), pages 51-71.
    12. Böhme Enrico & Müller Christopher, 2011. "Searching for the Concentration-Price Effect in the German Movie Theater Industry," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 231(4), pages 479-493, August.
    13. Aigner, Rafael & Weber, Katharina, 2017. "The Fehmarn Belt duopoly – Can the ferry compete with a tunnel?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 1-15.
    14. Yanhao Wei, 2018. "Airline networks, traffic densities, and value of links," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 341-370, September.
    15. Koen Frenken & Siebren Van Terwisga & Thijs Verburg & Guillaume Burghouwt, 2004. "Airline Competition At European Airports," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 95(2), pages 233-242, April.
    16. Encaoua, David & Moreaux, Michel & Perrot, Anne, 1996. "Compatibility and competition in airlines demand side network effects," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 14(6), pages 701-726, October.
    17. Brueckner, Jan K. & Lee, Darin & Singer, Ethan S., 2013. "Airline competition and domestic US airfares: A comprehensivereappraisal," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 1-17.
    18. Yilmazkuday, Hakan, 2021. "Profit margins in U.S. domestic airline routes," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 245-251.
    19. Fu, Xiaowen & Jin, Huan & Liu, Shaoxuan & Oum, Tae H. & Yan, Jia, 2019. "Exploring network effects of point-to-point networks: An investigation of the spatial patterns of Southwest Airlines’ network," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 36-45.
    20. Armantier, Olivier & Richard, Oliver, 2003. "Exchanges of Cost Information in the Airline Industry," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 34(3), pages 461-477, Autumn.

    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:jaitra:v:1:y:1994:i:1:p:5-14. 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.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-air-transport-management/ .

    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.