How is air traffic performance affected by type and location of markets? Is there any pattern to how air traffic performs with respect to the size of the markets? How does the type of aircraft affect performance? How sensitive are performance measures with respect to types of networks? How does performance change, on average, from one season to another? How does performance change when we account for industry structure?
The National Airspace System (NAS) in the United States is structured primarily around a web of air transportation markets linking each other through a network of 465 commercial airports located in and around 363 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). The total number of origin-destination (O&D) markets in the NAS ranges somewhere between 36,000 – 40,000 pairs depending upon seasons and economic cycles. In its present structure, these markets are hierarchical; a small number of markets accounts for the largest number of passengers and, hence, air traffic flows. For example, there were approximately 105 markets (0.3% of the total) which had 1,000 or more passengers a day (i.e., thick markets), but these accounted for almost 17% of the total passengers. On the other hand, there were almost 28,000 markets (78% of the total) with 10 or fewer passengers a day that accounted for only 6% of total passengers in 2003.
Traffic flow from markets and segments (i.e., T100 market and T100 segment of Form 41, respectively) are the primary data used for this paper. Using the T100 market and segment data from 1996 to 2003), we build well-specified econometric models to estimate and evaluate performance measures defined over market segments and networks. This econometric framework establishes and evaluates empirical linkages between performance measures (i.e., delays constructed using time from ramp-to-ramp against time airborne) and size of the markets, locations, distance, seasons of the year, aircraft type, and industry competitiveness over time. Preliminary estimates indicate that size of market, type of aircraft, and distance play important roles in influencing performance measures.
