How do pandemics affect intercity air travel? Implications for traffic and environment

Chunan Wang and Changmin Jiang

Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 2022, vol. 166, issue C, 330-353

Abstract: This paper investigates how a pandemic affects the distribution of traffic between public and private transport and the emissions from the transport sector. By assuming that there exists higher health risk of traveling in public transport than in private transport and using air transport and private cars as examples, we find the following results. First, the effects of a pandemic on the traffic volumes of airline services and private cars depend crucially on, for instance, the willingness-to-pay of travelers, the degree of substitution between transport modes, the demand-side network effect (via schedule delays), and the supply-side network effect (via the economies of traffic density). In particular, heterogeneous effects of the pandemic on the traffic volumes and flight frequencies of different airline services are found. Second, the total transport-related CO2 emissions decrease after the pandemic if the CO2 emissions per air traveler (or per flight) are sufficiently high, or the degree of substitution between airline services and private cars is sufficiently low. Third, numerical examples on the change in price of car travel and the introduction of high-speed rail show consistent insights. Finally, several policy implications are discussed.

Keywords: Pandemic; Air transport; Private cars; Traffic volume; Service frequency; Environmental effect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856422002919
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:transa:v:166:y:2022:i:c:p:330-353

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.tra.2022.11.008

Access Statistics for this article

Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice is currently edited by John (J.M.) Rose

More articles in Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().