There has been a perception that U.S. trunk airlines had an inherent cost advantage over smaller regional airlines because of economies of scale. We have formulated a general model of airline costs, which we estimate by using panel data on large and small airlines. Differences in scale are shown...

The airline industry is the central part of the commercial aviation value and supply chain. Nevertheless, it has the lowest profit margin and return on investment compared to other sectors in the chain. This leads to the question whether the airline industry is sustainable in the long run, the...

Almost 20 years after passage of the US Airline Deregulation Act, air transport regulatory liberalization has made inroads on all continents. But even as deregulation is still spreading, there are also calls for some form of re-regulation. The reasons are diverse and not necessarily consistent....

This paper discusses alternative concepts of productivity and methods of measurement. Different measures are appropriate for different questions. Partial factor productivity measures, such as the ever-popular labour productivity, are appropriate where disaggregate operational performance is of...

Expanding airports is a topic which can easily make it to the first page of the national press. But this is highly unlikely as “bad news” is “good news” and most often failures and scandals make it to the front page. Berlin airport or the on-going failure to open up a nearly-complete new...

Airport benchmarking has become a popular tool used by economists and airport managers alike. Within academic circles, a number of studies emerged assessing the productivity and efficiency of airports. This paper surveys the methods, data, and findings of empirical research in order to learn...

There are currently divergent trends in the regulation of airports in Germany. While traditionally airports have been regulated by cost-based regulation, a price cap regulation for Hamburg airport has been implemented in 2000. Given the objectives of economic welfare and efficiency the paper...