Technological innovation in the airline industry: The impact of regional jets

Jan Brueckner and Vivek Pai

International Journal of Industrial Organization, 2009, vol. 27, issue 1, 110-120

Abstract: This paper explores the impact of the regional jet (RJ), an important new technological innovation in the airline industry, on service patterns and service quality. The paper's theoretical analysis predicts that the frequency advantage of RJs over jets, a consequence of their small size, should have led to the emergence of point-to-point (PP) service in thin markets where such service was previously uneconomical. However, the evidence contradicts this prediction, showing that markets attracting new PP service by RJs had demographic characteristics similar to those of markets that already had jet PP service or attracted it after 1996. Additional descriptive evidence shows that RJs were used to provide service on a large number of new hub-and-spoke (HS) routes, and that they replaced discontinued jet and turboprop service on many such routes, as well as supplementing continuing jet service. When replacement or supplementation by RJs occurred, passengers benefited from better service quality via higher flight frequencies.

Keywords: Regional; jets; Airlines (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (31)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167-7187(08)00066-0
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Technological Innovation in the Airline Industry: The Impact of Regional Jets (2007)
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:indorg:v:27:y:2009:i:1:p:110-120

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Industrial Organization is currently edited by P. Bajari, B. Caillaud and N. Gandal

More articles in International Journal of Industrial Organization from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().