IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transa/v69y2014icp124-141.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effect of slot trading on route-level competition: Evidence from experience in the UK

Author

Listed:
  • Fukui, Hideki

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of airport slot trading on route-level competition using data on slot trades in the UK. The estimation results suggest that the slot trades among partner carriers contributed to slightly increased competition measured in terms of the number of competitors per route, whereas the slot trades between rival carriers had a negative effect on the number of competitors at the route level. The results suggest that carriers seem to have used the slots obtained from their rivals not to compete with each other but to strengthen their dominance on their existing routes. This behavior is considered to be derived from the bilateral nature of slot trading, which facilitates mutual forbearance among competitors. To cope with the potential anticompetitive effect of mutual forbearance, it would be worthwhile to explore slot-trading schemes that make it harder for carriers to take advantage of multimarket contact as well as alternative methods of primary slot allocation.

Suggested Citation

  • Fukui, Hideki, 2014. "Effect of slot trading on route-level competition: Evidence from experience in the UK," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 124-141.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:69:y:2014:i:c:p:124-141
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2014.08.012
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096585641400192X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tra.2014.08.012?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. Fukui, Hideki, 2010. "An empirical analysis of airport slot trading in the United States," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 330-357, March.
    2. Hofer, Christian & Windle, Robert J. & Dresner, Martin E., 2008. "Price premiums and low cost carrier competition," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(5), pages 864-882, September.
    3. Jan K. Brueckner, 2002. "Airport Congestion When Carriers Have Market Power," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(5), pages 1357-1375, December.
    4. Austan Goolsbee & Chad Syverson, 2008. "How Do Incumbents Respond to the Threat of Entry? Evidence from the Major Airlines," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 123(4), pages 1611-1633.
    5. Pai, Vivek, 2010. "On the factors that affect airline flight frequency and aircraft size," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 169-177.
    6. Givoni, Moshe & Rietveld, Piet, 2009. "Airline's choice of aircraft size - Explanations and implications," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 43(5), pages 500-510, June.
    7. Bilotkach, Volodymyr & Lakew, Paulos Ashebir, 2014. "On sources of market power in the airline industry: Panel data evidence from the US airports," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 288-305.
    8. William Greene, 1998. "Gender Economics Courses in Liberal Arts Colleges: Comment," Working Papers 98-06, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics.
    9. 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.
    10. A. Colin Cameron & Pravin K. Trivedi, 2010. "Microeconometrics Using Stata, Revised Edition," Stata Press books, StataCorp LP, number musr, March.
    11. William H. Greene, 1998. "Gender Economics Courses in Liberal Arts Colleges: Further Results," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(4), pages 291-300, January.
    12. William N. Evans & Ioannis N. Kessides, 1994. "Living by the "Golden Rule": Multimarket Contact in the U. S. Airline Industry," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(2), pages 341-366.
    13. Adelman, M A, 1969. "Comment on the "H" Concentration Measure as a Numbers-Equivalent," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 51(1), pages 99-101, February.
    14. B. Douglas Bernheim & Michael D. Whinston, 1990. "Multimarket Contact and Collusive Behavior," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 21(1), pages 1-26, Spring.
    15. Brueckner, Jan K., 2009. "Price vs. quantity-based approaches to airport congestion management," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(5-6), pages 681-690, June.
    16. Fukui, Hideki, 2012. "Do carriers abuse the slot system to inhibit airport capacity usage? Evidence from the US experience," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 1-6.
    17. Severin Borenstein, 1988. "On the Efficiency of Competitive Markets for Operating Licenses," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 103(2), pages 357-385.
    18. Steven A. Morrison, 2001. "Actual, Adjacent, and Potential Competition Estimating the Full Effect of Southwest Airlines," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 35(2), pages 239-256, May.
    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. Noto, Claudio, 2020. "Airport slots, secondary trading, and congestion pricing at an airport with a dominant network airline," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    2. Pellegrini, Paola & Bolić, Tatjana & Castelli, Lorenzo & Pesenti, Raffaele, 2017. "SOSTA: An effective model for the Simultaneous Optimisation of airport SloT Allocation," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 34-53.
    3. Fu, Xiaowen & Lei, Zheng & Liu, Shaoxuan & Wang, Kun & Yan, Jia, 2020. "On-time performance policy in the Chinese aviation market - An innovation or disruption?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 14-23.
    4. Sheng, Dian & Li, Zhi-Chun & Fu, Xiaowen, 2019. "Modeling the effects of airline slot hoarding behavior under the grandfather rights with use-it-or-lose-it rule," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 48-61.
    5. Kenneth Button, 2020. "Studying the empirical implications of the liberalization of airport markets," Competition and Regulation in Network Industries, , vol. 21(3), pages 223-243, September.
    6. 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.
    7. Guiomard, Cathal, 2018. "Airport slots: Can regulation be coordinated with competition? Evidence from Dublin airport," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 114(PA), pages 127-138.
    8. Ivanov, Nikola & Netjasov, Fedja & Jovanović, Radosav & Starita, Stefano & Strauss, Arne, 2017. "Air Traffic Flow Management slot allocation to minimize propagated delay and improve airport slot adherence," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 183-197.
    9. Miranda, Victor A.P. & Oliveira, Alessandro V.M., 2018. "Airport slots and the internalization of congestion by airlines: An empirical model of integrated flight disruption management in Brazil," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 201-219.
    10. Ribeiro, Nuno Antunes & Jacquillat, Alexandre & Antunes, António Pais & Odoni, Amedeo, 2019. "Improving slot allocation at Level 3 airports," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 32-54.
    11. Till Kösters & Marlena Meier & Gernot Sieg, 2023. "Effects of the use-it-or-lose-it rule on airline strategy and climate," Working Papers 36, Institute of Transport Economics, University of Muenster.

    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. 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.
    2. Zou, Bo & Hansen, Mark, 2014. "Flight delay impact on airfare and flight frequency: A comprehensive assessment," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 54-74.
    3. Fageda, Xavier, 2014. "What hurts the dominant airlines at hub airports?," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 177-189.
    4. Oliveira, Marcus V.R. & Oliveira, Alessandro V.M., 2018. "What drives effective competition in the airline industry? An empirical model of city-pair market concentration," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 165-175.
    5. Miranda, Victor A.P. & Oliveira, Alessandro V.M., 2018. "Airport slots and the internalization of congestion by airlines: An empirical model of integrated flight disruption management in Brazil," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 201-219.
    6. Gayle, Philip G. & Wu, Chi-Yin, 2013. "A re-examination of incumbents’ response to the threat of entry: Evidence from the airline industry," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 2(4), pages 119-130.
    7. Zhang, Yahua & Sampaio, Breno & Fu, Xiaowen & Huang, Zhibin, 2018. "Pricing dynamics between airline groups with dual-brand services," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 46-59.
    8. Stephen Martin, 2012. "Market Structure and Market Performance," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 40(2), pages 87-108, March.
    9. Brito, Igor R.S. & Oliveira, Alessandro V.M. & Dresner, Martin E., 2021. "An econometric study of the effects of airport privatization on airfares in Brazil," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 338-349.
    10. Chen, Ruowei & Lei, Zheng, 2017. "Airport dominance and airline pricing power: An investigation of hub premiums in the Chinese domestic market," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 509-524.
    11. Noto, Claudio, 2020. "Airport slots, secondary trading, and congestion pricing at an airport with a dominant network airline," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    12. Fu, Xiaowen & Lei, Zheng & Liu, Shaoxuan & Wang, Kun & Yan, Jia, 2020. "On-time performance policy in the Chinese aviation market - An innovation or disruption?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 14-23.
    13. Kerkemezos, Yannis & Pennings, Enrico & Karreman, Bas & van Reeven, Peran, 2023. "Price asymmetries and the path dependence of market power: Evidence from the U.S. airline industry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    14. 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.
    15. Hideki Murakami, 2009. "Low-Cost Entry, Inter-Firm Rivalry, and Welfare Implications in US Large Air Markets," Discussion Papers 2009-25, Kobe University, Graduate School of Business Administration.
    16. Bettini, Humberto F.A.J. & Silveira, José Maria F.J. & Oliveira, Alessandro V.M., 2018. "Estimating strategic responses to the march of a low cost carrier to primary airports," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 190-204.
    17. Varella, Rafael R. & Frazão, Jessica & Oliveira, Alessandro V.M., 2017. "Dynamic pricing and market segmentation responses to low-cost carrier entry," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 151-170.
    18. Sheng, Dian & Li, Zhi-Chun & Fu, Xiaowen, 2019. "Modeling the effects of airline slot hoarding behavior under the grandfather rights with use-it-or-lose-it rule," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 48-61.
    19. Jan Brueckner & Darin Lee & Ethan Singer, 2014. "City-Pairs Versus Airport-Pairs: A Market-Definition Methodology for the Airline Industry," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 44(1), pages 1-25, February.
    20. Donggeun Kim & Myongjin Kim & Kerry Tan, 2021. "Tacit collusion and price dispersion in the presence of Southwest Airlines," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 88(1), pages 3-32, July.

    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:69:y:2014:i:c:p:124-141. 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.