IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transb/v43y2009i10p966-983.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Airline competition and network structure

Author

Listed:
  • Flores-Fillol, Ricardo

Abstract

This paper studies airline networks and their welfare implications in an unregulated environment. Competing airlines may adopt either fully-connected (FC) or hub-and-spoke (HS) network structures; and passengers exhibiting low brand loyalty to their preferred carrier choose an outside option to travel so that markets are partially served by airlines. In this context, carriers adopt hubbing strategies when costs are sufficiently low, and asymmetric equilibria where one carrier chooses a FC strategy and the other chooses a HS strategy may arise. Quite interestingly, flight frequency can become excessive under HS network configurations.

Suggested Citation

  • Flores-Fillol, Ricardo, 2009. "Airline competition and network structure," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 43(10), pages 966-983, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transb:v:43:y:2009:i:10:p:966-983
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191-2615(09)00046-0
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    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. Kawasaki, Akio, 2008. "Network effects, heterogeneous time value and network formation in the airline market," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 388-403, July.
    2. Jan Brueckner & Ricardo Flores-Fillol, 2007. "Airline Schedule Competition," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 30(3), pages 161-177, May.
    3. Flores-Fillol, Ricardo, 2010. "Congested hubs," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 358-370, March.
    4. Ken Hendricks & Michele Piccione & Guofu Tan, 1999. "Equilibria in Networks," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 67(6), pages 1407-1434, November.
    5. Brueckner, Jan K & Whalen, W Tom, 2000. "The Price Effects of International Airline Alliances," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 43(2), pages 503-545, October.
    6. Joseph Berechman & Oz Shy, 1996. "The Structure of Airline Equilibrium Networks," Advances in Spatial Science, in: Jeroen C. J. M. Bergh & Peter Nijkamp & Piet Rietveld (ed.), Recent Advances in Spatial Equilibrium Modelling, chapter 7, pages 138-155, Springer.
    7. Brueckner, Jan K. & Spiller, Pablo T., 1991. "Competition and mergers in airline networks," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 323-342, September.
    8. Jan K. Brueckner, 2004. "Network Structure and Airline Scheduling," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(2), pages 291-312, June.
    9. Barla, Philippe & Constantatos, Christos, 2005. "Strategic interactions and airline network morphology under demand uncertainty," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 703-716, April.
    10. Jeroen C. J. M. Bergh & Peter Nijkamp & Piet Rietveld (ed.), 1996. "Recent Advances in Spatial Equilibrium Modelling," Advances in Spatial Science, Springer, number 978-3-642-80080-1.
    11. Tae Hoon Oum & Anming Zhang & Yimin Zhang, 1995. "Airline Network Rivalry," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 28(4a), pages 836-857, November.
    12. Flores-Fillol, Ricardo, 2009. "Congested hubs," Working Papers 2072/15844, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Department of Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Wang, Chunan & Wang, Xiaoyu, 2019. "Airport congestion delays and airline networks," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 328-349.
    2. Babić, Danica & Begović, Boris & Levajković, Tijana, 2023. "Probabilistic model for the impact of fear of flying on airline network structures," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    3. Akio Kawasaki, 2012. "Hub location with scheduling effects in a monopoly airline market," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 49(3), pages 805-819, December.
    4. Ricardo Flores-Fillol, 2007. "Airline Competition and Network Structure," UFAE and IAE Working Papers 683.07, Unitat de Fonaments de l'Anàlisi Econòmica (UAB) and Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC).
    5. Kawamori, Tomohiko & Lin, Ming Hsin, 2013. "Airline mergers with low cost carriers," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 2(2), pages 63-71.
    6. Babić, Danica & Kalić, Milica, 2018. "Modeling the selection of airline network structure in a competitive environment," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 42-52.
    7. Lin, Ming Hsin & Zhang, Anming, 2016. "Hub congestion pricing: Discriminatory passenger charges," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 5(C), pages 37-48.
    8. Anming Zhang & Yimin Zhang & Joseph A. Clougherty, 2011. "Competition and Regulation in Air Transport," Chapters, in: André de Palma & Robin Lindsey & Emile Quinet & Roger Vickerman (ed.), A Handbook of Transport Economics, chapter 35, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    9. Rafael Moner Colonques & Ricardo Flores Fillol, 2006. "Strategic Effects Of Airline Alliances," Working Papers. Serie AD 2006-06, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
    10. Silva, Hugo E. & Verhoef, Erik T. & van den Berg, Vincent A.C., 2014. "Airline route structure competition and network policy," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 320-343.
    11. Wang, Chunan & Wang, Xiaoyu, 2019. "Why do airlines prefer multi-hub networks?," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 56-74.
    12. Bilotkach, Volodymyr & Fageda, Xavier & Flores-Fillol, Ricardo, 2013. "Airline consolidation and the distribution of traffic between primary and secondary hubs," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(6), pages 951-963.
    13. Lin, Ming Hsin, 2012. "Airlines-within-airlines strategies and existence of low-cost carriers," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 637-651.
    14. Lin, Ming Hsin & Zhang, Yimin, 2017. "Hub-airport congestion pricing and capacity investment," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 89-106.
    15. Kawasaki, Akio, 2008. "Network effects, heterogeneous time value and network formation in the airline market," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 388-403, July.
    16. Sayed Ajaz Hussain & Serkan Bahceci, 2008. "Network Structure and Design in the Deregulated U.S. Airline Industry: an Argument for Re-Regulation?," Working Papers tecipa-325, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    17. Aguirregabiria, Victor & Ho, Chun-Yu, 2010. "A dynamic game of airline network competition: Hub-and-spoke networks and entry deterrence," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 377-382, July.
    18. Rafael Moner Colonques & Ricardo Flores Fillol, 2005. "Strategic Effects Of International Airline Alliances," Working Papers. Serie AD 2005-15, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
    19. Yetiskul, Emine & Matsushima, Kakuya & Kobayashi, Kiyoshi, 2005. "Airline Network Structure with Thick Market Externality," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 143-163, January.
    20. Chen, Jihui, 2024. "The pricing and quality effects of network structure choice: Evidence from American airlines’ international route cancellations," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).

    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:transb:v:43:y:2009:i:10:p:966-983. 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/548/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.