Global production networks in the passenger aviation industry

Abstract

Although the number of directions which geographical research on transport is taking has recently increased, the extent to which transport geography capitalises on theoretical advancements made in other sub-disciplines of human geography is still fairly limited. This especially pertains to economic geography which, in contrast to the predominantly positivist and quantitative transport geography, has developed over the last few decades a more post-positivist and qualitative profile. By means of focusing on passenger air transportone of the most neglected industries in economic geographythis paper aims to help bridge this gap. Three under-researched aspects of air transport are identified and a combination of two economic-geographical approachesglobal production networks (GPN) and evolutionary economic geography (EEG)is advocated as a useful conceptual basis for further, more qualitative and more critical research on this dynamic sector. The paper argues that GPN and EEG would help research on air transport to (1) employ network thinking beyond the infrastructural understanding of networks of air connections and thus better explain the multi-actor nature of the aviation sector, (2) complement the research on supra-national and national regulatory frameworks with more attention to the array of sub-national environments that shape the aviation industry 'from below', and (3) explore how the relations between aviation and economic development are moulded by different place-specific institutional factors. To lay foundations under further research the paper conceptualises the aviation industry as a global production network and uses the example of Polish passenger air transport to highlight the paper's key empirical implications.

Not all hubs are made equal: A case study of airport governance in Europe

“…While some, like Amsterdam Schiphol and Helsinki Airport, have expanded as hubs, others, like Zurich Airport and Brussels Airport, have experienced the grounding or bankruptcy of its major network carrier, which left a glaring gap in the airports’ transfer passenger numbers. This article addresses knowledge gaps indicated by Goetz (2015) and Niewiadomski, who highlighted a dearth of research ‘on how the institutional, political and socio-cultural features of the places which airports represent shape air transport “from below”’ (2017: 5). In his further research on the relation between local/regional institutions and airports, and its impact on regional development Niewiadomski notes that ‘the involvement of local/regional institutions in shaping aviation “from below” has been explored very negligibly’ (2020: 173-174).…”

Aeromobilities’ extra-sectoral costs: a methodological reorientation

“…As Urry (2000, 188) writes, social processes 'have to be re-thought as involving multiple mobilities with novel spaces and temporalities', rather than discrete phenomena that are kept separate for analysis (see Cidell 2017). This viewpoint is able to add to global value chain or global production network analyses of transport systems (see Niewiadomski 2017), by taking their 'chains' and 'networks' beyond assigned sectoral categories to countenance far more complex sociotechnical and socioecological interdependencies in mobilities. Interrogating these interlocking mobilisations of people and things happening alongside aeromobilities can shed important light on an industry that often has spill-over effects in other seemingly unrelated action spaces.…”

Capital, class and the social necessity of passenger air transport

“…However, while passenger air travel has been convincingly described and modelled as a system of flows, theoretical accounts of its centrality to the reproduction of capitalist society remain elusive. Critics argue this is because transport geography has remained somewhat isolated from broader theoretical developments in economy geography that may shed light on the flying-economy relation (Keeling, 2007, 2008; Niewiadomski, 2017; Shaw and Sidaway, 2011). Transportation, as Keeling (2007: 219) puts it, ‘is treated as so obviously fundamental to society that there is no need to explain how or why’.…”