Liberalization and efficiency in slot-constrained airports

Airport capacity; Endogenous fee; Slot allocation; Allocation efficiencies; Liberalisation; Passenger fees; Peak time; Timeslots; Geography, Planning and Development; Transportation; Law

Abstract :

[en] We investigate the presence of inefficiency in slot allocation when an airport allocates slots in destination markets served by monopoly and duopoly airlines, with the number of available peak-time slots constrained by airport capacity. When an airport maintains regulated per-passenger fees, we observe the emergence of allocative inefficiency. Conversely, in scenarios where an airport has the autonomy to set fees, we find that, in line with empirical evidence, fee liberalization resolves these allocative inefficiencies by increasing per-passenger fees. However, the improvement in allocation efficiency may be counterbalanced by the rise in fees, potentially impacting overall welfare.

Disciplines :

Special economic topics (health, labor, transportation...)

Author, co-author :

PICARD, Pierre M ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance (FDEF) > Department of Economics and Management (DEM) ; LIDAM/CORE, Université Catholique de Louvain., Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

TAMPIERI, Alessandro ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance > Department of Economics and Management ; Department of Economics, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia., Italy

WAN, Xi ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance > Department of Economics and Management ; International Joint Audit Institute, Nanjing Audit University, Nanjing, China

External co-authors :

yes

Language :

English

Title :

Liberalization and efficiency in slot-constrained airports

Publication date :

March 2025

Journal title :

Transport Policy

ISSN :

0967-070X

eISSN :

1879-310X

Publisher :

Elsevier Ltd

Volume :

163

Pages :

14 - 26

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Additional URL :

https://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S0967070X24003895?httpAccept=text/xml

Funders :

Fonds National de la Recherche Luxembourg
Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province

Funding text :

P.M. Picard was funded in part by the TSPQ C20/SC/14755507 and Inter/Mobility/2021/LE/16527808 of the Fonds National de la Recherche of Luxembourg. X. Wan was funded by the Social Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, China (No. 22EYD005).

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since 13 May 2025

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