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Hub Premium, Airport Dominance and Market Power in the European Airline Industry

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Abstract

Using evidence from an original dataset of more than 12 million fares, this study sheds light on two issues relating to the pricing behaviour of the main European airlines: 1) the extent to which an airline’s dominant position at the origin airport, at the route and the city-pair level affects the airlines’ market power; 2) whether fares follow a monotonic time path consistent with the pursuing of an inter-temporal price discrimination strategy. Our estimates reveal that enjoying a dominant position within a route is conducive to higher fares, possibly because of the limited size of many “natural monopoly” routes that facilitate the incumbent’s engagement in a limit pricing strategy. On the contrary, a larger share within a city-pair does not seem to facilitate the exercise of market power, thereby suggesting the existence of a large degree of substitutability between the routes in a city-pair.

Suggested Citation

  • Claudio A. Piga & Enrico Bachis, 2007. "Hub Premium, Airport Dominance and Market Power in the European Airline Industry," Discussion Paper Series 2007_11, Department of Economics, Loughborough University, revised Apr 2007.
    • Handle: RePEc:lbo:lbowps:2007_11
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    File URL: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/ec/RePEc/lbo/lbowps/WP_Piga_Bachis_RPE_article.pdf
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    1. Alderighi, Marco & Cento, Alessandro & Nijkamp, Peter & Rietveld, Piet, 2012. "Competition in the European aviation market: the entry of low-cost airlines," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 223-233.
    2. 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.
    3. Masood Kiarashrad & Seyed Hamid Reza Pasandideh & Mohammad Mohammadi, 2021. "Identifying and prioritizing the essential factors on ticket pricing strategy in a local market based on empirical study: Iranian domestic market," Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 20(1), pages 76-87, February.
    4. Angela Stefania Bergantino & Claudia Capozza, 2015. "Airline Pricing Behavior Under Limited Inter‐Modal Competition," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 53(1), pages 700-713, January.
    5. Nicolas De Roos & Gordon Mills & Stephen Whelan, 2010. "Pricing Dynamics in the Australian Airline Market," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 86(275), pages 545-562, December.
    6. Bergantino, Angela Stefania & Capozza, Claudia, 2014. "One price for all? The role of market captivity as a price discrimination device: evidence from the Italia city-pair markets," Working Papers 1401, SIET Società Italiana di Economia dei Trasporti e della Logistica.
    7. Bergantino, Angela Stefania & Capozza, Claudia, 2015. "One price for all? Price discrimination and market captivity: Evidence from the Italian city-pair markets," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 231-244.
    8. Bendinelli, William E. & Bettini, Humberto F.A.J. & Oliveira, Alessandro V.M., 2016. "Airline delays, congestion internalization and non-price spillover effects of low cost carrier entry," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 39-52.
    9. Bergantino, Angela Stefania & Capozza, Claudia, 2014. "One price for all? The role of market captivity as a price discrimination device: evidence from the Italia city-pair markets," Working Papers 14_1, SIET Società Italiana di Economia dei Trasporti e della Logistica.
    10. Manuela Jr., Wilfred S. & Rhoades, Dawna L. & Curtis, Tamilla, 2019. "Market power at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport: The case of Alaska Airlines," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 90-99.
    11. Weekx, Simon & Buyle, Sven, 2023. "The effect of airline dominance on airport performance: Empirical evidence from medium-sized European airports," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    12. Mantin, Benny & Rubin, Eran, 2018. "Price volatility and market performance measures: The case of revenue managed goods," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 35-50.
    13. 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.
    14. van den Bogaard, Julien E. & Lijesen, Mark G., 2019. "Pricing of imperfect substitutes: The next flight is not the same flight," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    15. Masood Kiarashrad & Seyed Hamid Reza Pasandideh & Mohammad Mohammadi, 2021. "A mixed-integer nonlinear optimization model for integrated flight scheduling, fleet assignment, and ticket pricing in competitive market," Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 20(5), pages 596-607, October.
    16. Silva, Thiago Christiano & Dias, Felipe A.M. & dos Reis, Vinicius E. & Tabak, Benjamin M., 2022. "The role of network topology in competition and ticket pricing in air transportation: Evidence from Brazil," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 601(C).

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • L93 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Air Transportation

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