'THE IMPORTANCE OF SPATIAL ECONOMICS FOR ASSESSING AIRPORT COMPETITION'

摘要

We are going to explore the relevance of spatial competition and spatial economics with regards to airport competition.rnUsually an airport's catchment area is defined by drawing (more or less) concentric circles around anrnairport, most commonly by using several travel distances as a measurement. Then airport management and regulatorsrnalike look at the characteristics of those catchment areas, the available substitutes and undertake an assessmentrnof market power. When it comes to airport competition, literature usually recognizes the existence ofrnspatial competition, however typically within one and the same markets. Others have drawn circles that overlaprneach other and claim that competition lies within these overlapping areas. When we look at economic models forrnspatial competition however, there are no overlapping areas. We argue in our paper that economists have generallyrnoverlooked the stylized facts that can be inferred from economic models of spatial competition. After a shortrnreview on the existing literature on airport competition, we briefly introduce economic models for spatial competition.rnWe then look at the implications these models have regarding airport competition. We will show for examplernthat the number of airports in a market can be determined by a trade-off between fixed costs relative tornmarket size and transportation costs, and that entry of airports should lead to price increases, rather than pricerndecreases, if the models are applied.Our paper will shed some new light on the difficult topic of airport competition and introduce the implicationsrnthat can be drawn from models of spatial economics.