The impact of air transport market liberalization: Evidence from EU's external aviation policy

Abate, Megersa; Christidis, Panayotis

doi:10.1016/j.ecotra.2020.100164

Cited by 22 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…To understand the implications of COVID-19 crisis prompted government support on air transport market liberalisation, it is important to recap the recent focus on the issue from two contrasting perspectives as noted in Abate and Christidis (2020) . On the one hand, the focus is mainly academic and geared towards assessment of major bilateral and multilateralliberalisation initiatives in the US ( Winston and Yan, 2015 ), the EU ( Burghouwt and de Wit, 2015 ), Africa ( Abate, 2016 ; InterVISTAS, 2014 ), Northeast Asia ( Adler et al, 2014 ), and the Middle East ( Cristea et al, 2015 ).…”

Section: Implications Of Government Financial Supportmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Contrary to ‘destructive competition’ arguments, the literature consistently shows that the fortunes of the air transport industry are largely determined by its cost structure, demand and fuel price fluctuations, and infrastructure bottlenecks ( Abate and Christidis, 2020 ). For example, Europe’s major carriers are usually shown to have a higher cost base (especially labour) compared to their rivals.…”

Section: Implications Of Government Financial Supportmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The other side of the coin of government interference in aviation, however, is the distortion of competition and the creation of additional hurdles that prevent a level playing field ( Tretheway and Andriulaitis, 2015 ). Increased policy intervention can reverse part of the progress made regarding the liberalisation of the air transport market and the resulting benefits for users and operators ( Abate and Christidis, 2020 ). A bias in favour of national operators was already evident even in supposedly open aviation markets such as in the United States (US) ( Morrison and de Wit, 2019 ) and additional government support will probably accentuate these imbalances.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Government support to airlines in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic

Abate

Christidis

Purwanto

2020

Journal of Air Transport Management

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250

149

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This paper assesses government support measures to the air transport sector following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic from two points of view. First, it explores the factors that shape governments’ willingness to support airlines. This is followed by a discussion on the various types of support that may be provided and how country-specific parameters influence the choice of measures. Second, it analyses the implications of government support in three dimensions relevant to air transport policy: competition and liberalisation, airline ownership and control, and environmental sustainability. The analysis suggests that most governments give a high priority to maintaining air transport connectivity in order to protect economic activity and jobs, in aviation itself and in related sectors such as tourism. The trade-off between ensuring connectivity and maintaining competition after the COVID-19 pandemic is a challenge with several political and economic dimensions. The re-orientation of public policy in the aftermath of the pandemic may limit the relative importance of the policy priorities that shaped the evolution of the air transport sector before the crisis, especially those related to climate change and the environment. The role of government and public authorities at all levels – especially the type and duration of measures affecting transport operations – will be crucial for the future development of the aviation industry.

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Section: Implications Of Government Financial Supportmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Implications Of Government Financial Supportmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Government support to airlines in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic

Abate

Christidis

Purwanto

2020

Journal of Air Transport Management

Self Cite

250

149

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“…While China represents 89.9% of the final destinations, indirect connections linked Hubei province to 23,532 distinct airports across the world. Air transport activity from Wuhan, as across the aviation sector in general, is quite volatile with important fluctuations over time and a high seasonal variation [19]. In addition, January and early February traffic is greatly affected by the Chinese New Year's holiday, both in terms of reduced economic activity and increased tourism.…”

Section: Analyzing Air Transport Patternsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Predictive Capacity of Air Travel Patterns during the Global Spread of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Risk, Uncertainty and Randomness

Christidis

Aris

2020

IJERPH

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Air travel has a decisive role in the spread of infectious diseases at the global level. We present a methodology applied during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic that uses detailed aviation data at the final destination level in order to measure the risk of the disease spreading outside China. The approach proved to be successful in terms of identifying countries with a high risk of infected travellers and as a tool to monitor the evolution of the pandemic in different countries. The high number of undetected or asymptomatic cases of COVID-19, however, limits the capacity of the approach to model the full dynamics. As a result, the risk for countries with a low number of passengers from Hubei province appeared as low. Globalization and international aviation connectivity allow travel times that are much shorter than the incubation period of infectious diseases, a fact that raises the question of how to react in a potential new pandemic.Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 3356 2 of 15 information and air travel networks to produce a user-defined global map of risk distribution [9]. A generic tool that allows the estimation of the median early disease arrival time from around the world using air transport schedules was proposed by [10]. Air travel patterns were also employed by Bajardi et al. [11] in order to theoretically model the potential impacts of travel restrictions on the spread of an epidemic. Nevertheless, while travel and trade have been shown as relevant for the international spread of the 2009 A/H1N1 influenza, the slow deployment of control measures in countries with lower healthcare capacities led to spatial imbalances [12]. Air transport data have been used indirectly to measure the effective distance and the relative arrival time of a disease outbreak, with promising results when tested on historical data [13]. Based on the same premises, producing near real-time or now-casting predictions on the international spread of COVID-19 appeared to be based on scientifically sound principles [14].However, most expectations about the ability to predict the global spread of COVID-19 proved misleading or of limited use.This includes our own work, which we present here in order to discuss the reasons why most projections missed important aspects of the disease propagation dynamics. In our opinion, and as a part of the scientific process, it is important to publish and discuss even the negative results of research activities. The lessons learned from unsuccessful applications can be valuable for future work, either by improving current practices or by re-examining risk assessment from a new perspective. Especially in the case of predictive modeling, the wide body of literature that presents successful ex-post examples of possible value may give the false impression that the spatial aspects of disease propagation are more easily predictable than what is actually possible in reality.The question this paper is trying to answer is whether air passenger traffic alone can provide early information...

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“…EU carriers are, unexpectedly, receiving government support that has affected the LPF in a manner that resembles that which existed previous to the EU air transport deregulation, which took place at the end of the 80s and the beginning of the 90s, in which government control of airlines was considered to be one of the main obstacles [21]. It is still unclear how this new LPF is going to distort competition and could jeopardize the benefits obtained by EU air transport liberalization [22]. It is expected that the direct participation of governments in the shares of airlines will affect the LPF in the years to come, so the end of air transport liberalization that was analyzed before the outbreak of the pandemic could be definitively installed [23].…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of COVID-Related EU State Aid on the Level Playing Field for Airlines

Martín-Domingo

Martín

2022

Sustainability

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State aid for airlines around the world has been a common practice during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the air transport was one of the sectors most heavily affected. This study analyzes 27 cases of state aid to EU airlines between 1 March 2020 and 30 September 2021 with a total amount of €85 billion. The information was obtained from the area of competition of the European Commission (EC), which is the entity responsible for final approval. Results indicate that the largest EU economies (Germany and France), as well as some Northern European countries, are supporting national airlines more extensively. Airlines with a weaker financial performance before the pandemic were more likely to receive state aid. Government involvement in the airline industry during the recent health crisis will have an important influence on the level playing field (LPF) for airlines. It is still unclear how this will evolve in the future, but it seems that some airlines now resemble the public flag companies of the past.

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The impact of air transport market liberalization: Evidence from EU's external aviation policy

Cited by 22 publications

References 20 publications

Government support to airlines in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic

Government support to airlines in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic

The Predictive Capacity of Air Travel Patterns during the Global Spread of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Risk, Uncertainty and Randomness

The Effect of COVID-Related EU State Aid on the Level Playing Field for Airlines

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