Journal of Air Transport Management最新文献

{"title":"Profit Efficiency: Insight into airline business models and strategic choices","authors":"Fecri Karanki ,&nbsp;Roger Schaufele","doi":"10.1016/j.jairtraman.2025.102863","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jairtraman.2025.102863","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Following a challenging start to the 21st century, airlines rebounded to achieve record profits in the aftermath of the Great Recession (2007–2009). While profitability refers to the absolute financial gains of a firm, profit efficiency is a measure of how effectively a firm converts its resources into maximum potential profit, given its operating environment and input prices. These distinct economic concepts raise key questions about airline strategies: Can airlines maximize their profits? Which business models achieve higher profit efficiency? What factors influence their profit efficiency? This study addresses these questions using a stochastic profit efficiency model based on data from U.S. airlines spanning from 2009 to 2019. Our findings reveal that the U.S. airline industry exhibits an average profit efficiency of 93.2 %. Low-Cost Carriers (LCCs) have a higher mean efficiency score of 98.7 % while Full-Service Airlines (FSAs) follow them with 95.3 %. Ultra-Low-Cost Carriers (ULCCs) have the lowest profit efficiency at 86.1 %. Finally, LCCs have demonstrated more stable profit efficiency over the years. In addition, ancillary revenues positively impact the profit efficiency, indicating higher markup resulting from add-on pricing. The strategies implemented after the Great Recession—such as capacity discipline and mergers—have significantly increased profit efficiency while the airport network expansion result in lower profit inefficiency. Overall, this study highlights the extent of profit efficiency for the U.S. airline industry and identifies the key factors influencing it.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14925,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Air Transport Management","volume":"129 ","pages":"Article 102863"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144679478","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Route expansion trends, performances and driving factors of Chinese low-cost carriers","authors":"Chuntao Wu,&nbsp;Xiaohe He,&nbsp;Wenjing Xue","doi":"10.1016/j.jairtraman.2025.102861","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jairtraman.2025.102861","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":14925,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Air Transport Management","volume":"129 ","pages":"Article 102861"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144670432","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Multi-agent task allocation and path planning for autonomous ground support equipment","authors":"Manouk van der Zwan ,&nbsp;Gülçin Ermiş,&nbsp;Alexei Sharpanskykh","doi":"10.1016/j.jairtraman.2025.102855","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jairtraman.2025.102855","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We aim to contribute to the automation of ground handling tasks using autonomous ground support equipment (GSE) at airports. Automation of airside operations has recently become critical for the airports to achieve higher levels of safety and efficiency under growing traffic demand and requires solving a complex scheduling and path planning problem. To address this problem, we present a multi-agent task allocation and path planning model for handling airside operations on the apron. In the problem, the ground handling tasks are to be allocated to the equipment, the trips of vehicles should be scheduled within specific time windows considering the flight schedules, and the collisions of vehicles on the apron and service roads should be avoided. We present a centralized multi-agent task allocation and routing model which aims to optimize the allocation and routing of various types of ground handling tasks over a heterogeneous set of GSE vehicles. We convert the allocation and routing problem into vehicle routing problem with time windows, pick-ups, deliveries and solve the problem using a warm start mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model. We also introduce a nonlinear objective function which converts the MILP model into a mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) model, to minimize the time service locations at the stands are occupied. Then, we solve the corresponding path finding problem to find collision free paths for the GSE, by the multi-agent path finding model. The proposed model outperforms the decentralized approach in previous research regarding the allocation rate of assigning tasks to vehicles and the performance indicators of finding conflict free paths, and in CPU time. The mean deviations from shortest paths were considerably small in path planning which means that the solution quality was high. Furthermore, the CPU time of allocating tasks has been reduced by 48% compared to the CPU time of decentralized allocation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14925,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Air Transport Management","volume":"129 ","pages":"Article 102855"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144655329","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"An investigation of the relationship among weather, low-level wind shear and aircraft go-around at Jeju International Airport in Korea","authors":"Jinho Cho ,&nbsp;Yonghwa Lee ,&nbsp;Hojong Baik ,&nbsp;Janghoon Park","doi":"10.1016/j.jairtraman.2025.102860","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jairtraman.2025.102860","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Wind shear (WS) refers to an abrupt change in wind speed and/or direction, whether in a vertical or horizontal direction. In particular, low-level wind shear (hereafter LLWS) is a type of WS that occurs at or below an altitude of approximately 1600 ft (500 m) and thus affects aircraft operations during landing or take-off phases. Jeju International Airport (CJU) is well-known for experiencing frequent LLWS and consequent occurrence of go-around (GA) operations (also referred to as missed approach). LLWS is known to be elusive and thus difficult to predict. Most previous studies are concerned with elucidating LLWS from a meteorological angle, without considering its potential effects on flight operations. In this study, we investigate the weather conditions that lead to LLWS at CJU airport and then seek the linkage between LLWS and go-around operations. General weather information and flight records containing aircraft speed, altitude, and specific weather observations during GA at CJU airport are collected. We empirically categorize five wind patterns that contribute to severe LLWS and necessitate go-around operations. In this paper, we drive a probability table that summarizes the chances of go-around operations according to the wind direction and speed. We also discuss limitations and areas for future research.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14925,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Air Transport Management","volume":"129 ","pages":"Article 102860"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144655328","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Reconsidering airport economic impact assessments: A bottom-up comparative analysis of Belgian airports","authors":"Jolien Pauwels ,&nbsp;Sven Buyle ,&nbsp;Wouter Dewulf ,&nbsp;Bart Jourquin","doi":"10.1016/j.jairtraman.2025.102854","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jairtraman.2025.102854","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study analyses and compares the economic impact of Belgium's five commercial airports on their region and country. The airports represent different types, including Belgium's main airport, Brussels Airport and four regional airports: a low-cost regional airport (Brussels South Charleroi Airport), a specialised cargo regional airport (Liège Airport), and two small regional airports (Antwerp Airport and Ostend-Bruges Airport). The economic impact is measured through input-output analysis, which assesses added value and employment on a direct, indirect, and induced level. To improve accuracy, we employ a bottom-up approach that links company-level employment and added value data to the input-output framework via NACE classifications. Additionally, a Monte Carlo sensitivity analysis is introduced to strengthen the robustness of our findings.</div><div>Our results demonstrate significant differences in the airports' economic contributions based on airport size and operational focus, with Liège Airport's cargo specialisation generating a particularly strong regional impact. These findings lead to a broader discussion on airport subsidies based on the economic impact. Beyond the Belgian context, our bottom-up approach provides a replicable framework for more precise airport impact assessments.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14925,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Air Transport Management","volume":"128 ","pages":"Article 102854"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144656885","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A systematic review of general aviation accident factors, effects and prevention","authors":"Emma Sheffield,&nbsp;Seung-Yong Lee,&nbsp;Yahua Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.jairtraman.2025.102859","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jairtraman.2025.102859","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>General aviation, which comprises civilian aviation but excludes scheduled airline services and commercial air transport operations, continues to carry a poor safety record with a significantly higher accident rate compared to that of commercial aviation. This systematic literature review examined 46 studies to identify the most prominent causal and contributing factors to fixed-wing general aviation accidents, as well as effective measures to improve safety. Thematic analysis revealed five key themes: Human Factors (26), Training Deficiencies (21), Aircraft Characteristics (13), Pilot Characteristics (11), and Phase of Flight (9). Flight in low visibility conditions, such as instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) or night flight were consistently associated with increased fatality risk. Pilots operating under visual flight rules (VFR) without an instrument rating were especially vulnerable during inadvertent IMC encounters. Training deficiencies were another key factor, especially the lack of recurrent training in emergency procedures. Accident risk was also higher during specific flight phases: take-off, landing, and low-altitude manoeuvring were frequently associated with fatal stall/spin events due to minimal recovery margins. To mitigate these risks, targeted recurrent training is essential. Routine practice with certified flight instructors, alongside the use of approved flight simulators and distance learning, can improve both technical and non-technical pilot proficiency. Future research should investigate improved training methods, including the use of emerging technologies such as virtual and augmented reality, to enhance skill retention and reduce accident rates in general aviation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14925,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Air Transport Management","volume":"128 ","pages":"Article 102859"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144606098","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Dare to Fly? Analyzing psychological reactions and travel attitudes of Chinese social media users post-aviation accidents through text mining","authors":"Yunxiao Guo ,&nbsp;Jingqiang Tong ,&nbsp;Junrong Zhao ,&nbsp;Wei Pan ,&nbsp;Xiayu Du ,&nbsp;Jinghan Hu ,&nbsp;Qingfeng Yang ,&nbsp;Fangfang Wen ,&nbsp;Zhihong Ren","doi":"10.1016/j.jairtraman.2025.102858","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jairtraman.2025.102858","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Commercial air travel is essential to modern society, but aviation accidents can have profound psychological impacts. The public's emotional responses and attitudes toward air travel are shaped by factors such as the severity of the incident and its social repercussions.</div></div><div><h3>Objectives</h3><div>The study analyzes how the Chinese public's concerns, emotional responses, attributions, and attitudes toward air travel change following aviation accidents with varying severity and social impact. Additionally, it extends the application of the emotion-social information model in disaster scenarios and online behavior, providing valuable insights for crisis management.</div></div><div><h3>Method</h3><div>The study employs the LDA topic model to identify public concerns, sentiment analysis with an affective dictionary, and Naive Bayes for emotional attribution. Comments before and after the incidents were analyzed using Wilcoxon rank tests to assess changes in attitudes toward air travel.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Public attention focused on victims, causes, and crew responses. Severe accidents elicited sadness, while less severe incidents prompted disgust and fear. Positive societal impacts from accidents improved emotions but did not significantly affect travel attitudes. Negative emotions led to a notable shift in attitudes toward air travel, while positive emotions had a limited effect.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>The study provides valuable insights into the emotional dynamics following aviation accidents, enhancing the understanding of the emotion-social information model. It highlights the lasting impact of negative emotions on travel attitudes and the limited influence of positive emotions, with implications for psychological interventions and crisis management.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14925,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Air Transport Management","volume":"128 ","pages":"Article 102858"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144596434","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Spatial–temporal dynamics of airside congestion: A Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram perspective","authors":"Hasnain Ali,&nbsp;Xuan Tao Hoo,&nbsp;Van-Phat Thai,&nbsp;Duc-Thinh Pham,&nbsp;Sameer Alam","doi":"10.1016/j.jairtraman.2025.102850","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jairtraman.2025.102850","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Airport airside congestion, driven by the growing imbalance between air traffic demand and constrained capacity, presents significant operational challenges that affect efficiency, safety, and environmental impact. Effectively addressing this requires models that capture the complex interactions within the airside network (taxiways, runways, gates) to provide insights into traffic flow dynamics and mechanisms of congestion formation, spread, and dissipation. Traditional approaches – such as microsimulation methods and queuing models – are often either computationally demanding or focus on specific components (like runways), limiting their ability to capture broader network interactions and reducing their operational feasibility. This study proposes an alternative approach, adapting the Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram (MFD) to model airside traffic using three-dimensional aircraft trajectory data. By analyzing aggregate traffic variables – flow, density, and speed – the MFD provides a computationally efficient means of understanding airside congestion patterns and supports informed decision-making. This paper presents a novel methodology for constructing airside MFDs using A-SMGCS data from Singapore Changi Airport. The study also investigates the spatial and temporal factors contributing to congestion, offering insights into how congestion patterns develop and evolve under varying operational conditions. In the temporal domain, even during low-demand periods, departure and arrival banks contribute to congestion. Additionally, this study analyzes the impact of weather conditions on the airside network flow, highlighting the effects of variable wind and adverse weather, such as rain and thunderstorm, on airside congestion. In the spatial domain, traffic inhomogeneity – an uneven distribution of traffic on the airside network – reduces overall flow, particularly during congestion. These findings highlight the potential to improve airside capacity utilization and mitigate congestion by distributing traffic more evenly across both temporal and spatial domains, i.e., minimizing schedule banks and ensuring a balanced allocation of taxi routes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14925,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Air Transport Management","volume":"128 ","pages":"Article 102850"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144588385","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The influence of seat pitch, wi-fi, and other service features on airfares and passenger share in the U.S. domestic air travel market","authors":"Kiljae K. Lee ,&nbsp;Li Zou ,&nbsp;Scott Ambrose","doi":"10.1016/j.jairtraman.2025.102853","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jairtraman.2025.102853","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines how six service features affect passenger share and airfare in the U.S. domestic market. Applying two-stage least squares and random forest models to 5248 O&amp;D records, we find seat pitch has the strongest impact. The relationship is nonlinear: share rises sharply at 29 inches, then levels off -- suggesting passengers may view 29 inches as a minimum comfort threshold. Wi-Fi impact plateaus: moving from no to paid Wi-Fi boosts share, but making it free adds little, suggesting connectivity is valued more than whether it is free. Live TV is negatively associated with share. USB access and aircraft age show modest positive association with both share and fares, while aircraft size has a strong positive association with share but a slight negative effect on fares. Building on recent empirical studies of service differentiation in aviation, these findings highlight that passenger preferences are evolving by valuing functional and digital connectivity.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14925,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Air Transport Management","volume":"128 ","pages":"Article 102853"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144588384","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Study on the subsidy efficiency of small and medium-sized airports in China based on social economic impact","authors":"Yongkang Song ,&nbsp;Yanhua Li ,&nbsp;Hanchen Ke ,&nbsp;Keyan Zhao","doi":"10.1016/j.jairtraman.2025.102852","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jairtraman.2025.102852","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Existing studies on airport efficiency predominantly emphasize operational performance, often overlooking airports' social responsibilities as public infrastructure. This study adopts a socioeconomic impact analysis perspective to evaluate the subsidy efficiency of 56 small and medium-sized airports in China from 2015 to 2019, offering insights to improve the interaction between airport operations and socioeconomic development. The study consists of two main components. Firstly, Network Data Envelopment Analysis (NDEA) decomposes the subsidy process into two sub-processes: stimulating air transport volume and enhancing socioeconomic development, enabling a detailed efficiency assessment. Secondly, a panel data regression model is utilized to analyze the key factors influencing subsidy efficiency. The efficiency assessment highlights that the weak correlation between airport operations and regional economic development is the primary barrier to improving subsidy efficiency. Additionally, the results reveal significant geographic disparities, with airports in eastern regions exhibiting higher subsidy efficiency than those in the west. The panel regression analysis identifies several factors with substantial positive effects on subsidy efficiency, including the number of airlines and connected destinations, the city's population size, and highway passenger traffic. To the best of our knowledge, this study is among the first to evaluate airport subsidy efficiency, specifically focusing on social economic outcomes, particularly for small and medium-sized airports. By extending the scope of existing research on airport efficiency evaluation, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of the role of subsidies in supporting smaller airports and their relationship with social development.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":14925,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Air Transport Management","volume":"128 ","pages":"Article 102852"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144579293","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}