EXPLAINING THE AIRPORT CHOICE FOR FREIGHTER OPERATIONS IN EUROPE WITH STATED PREFERENCE ANALYSIS

摘要

Due to numerous studies, the airport choice of passengers or for passenger operations is fairlywell understood. The airport choice for cargo operations, on the other hand, still raises a numberof questions. To bridge this gap in research, the stated preference method, which is often usedin passenger studies, is applied to explain the airport choice for freighter operations in Europe. Astated preference experiment was set up using a state-of-the-art partial profile design. A total of30 completed surveys from 26 different airlines were collected, serving as input data for theestimation of various logit models. First, a simple multinomial logit model was estimated,showing forwarders as the most important attribute for the airport choice. Second, a panelmixed logit model was calculated which illustrated the taste heterogeneity between the variouscarriers. To further point out the differences between airlines, several multinomial logit modelswere computed including socio-economic variables. Finally, compensation indices were definedto indicate the trade-offs that airlines make when choosing an airport for freighter operations.The largest compensation indices could be found regarding the presence of forwarders. Theresults of this study enable policy makers and airports to better understand and respond to theneeds of freighter operators.