Regulatory airport classification in the US: The role of international markets

Pere Suau-Sanchez, Augusto Voltes-Dorta and Héctor Rodríguez-Déniz

Transport Policy, 2015, vol. 37, issue C, 157-166

Abstract: In a context of debate over the future of the US Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) funding model, this paper revisits the current system of airport classification used for the allocation of public funding for capacity developments. Previous papers have already addressed the limitations of the FAA's uni-dimensional method, and proposed new approaches that take into account the two dimensions of “hubbing” activity, i.e., traffic generation and connectivity. However, these studies are biased by the lack of detailed demand data on international connections. Using an MIDT dataset comprising a sample of domestic and international markets served by US airports during the first quarter of 2013, this paper aims at providing a full picture on the pitfalls of the existing FAA method, as well as addressing the impact of international connectivity in characterising the airports' hubbing profiles. Hierarchical clustering is used to provide alternative criteria for hub classification within the context of US National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS). This new typology of primary US airports can help to optimize AIP funding by allowing for further differentiation in the FAA allocation criteria.

Keywords: Airport networks; International connectivity; Flow centrality; Hierarchical clustering (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967070X14002315
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:trapol:v:37:y:2015:i:c:p:157-166

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
https://shop.elsevie ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2014.11.003

Access Statistics for this article

Transport Policy is currently edited by Y. Hayashi

More articles in Transport Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().