Competition between hub airports: the case of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol

摘要

In this paper we present a methodology to analyze the competitive position of hub airports on markets served with a transfer at these airports, the so-called hub markets. This methodology results in the estimated passenger market shares of hub-airports on thousands of individual hub markets. The paper adds to the existing body of knowledge since earlier research mainly addressed the supply-side of airline network competition in terms of connectivity and generalized travel costs. In this paper, we add the demand side by modelling passenger choice behaviour in airline networks. We apply this methodology to the competitive position of Amsterdam Schiphol vis-à-vis competing hub airports. We conclude that the most important hub markets for Amsterdam are the markets between North-America and Europe, Asia/Pacific and Europe and the hub markets within Europe. At about 30% of the hub markets via Schiphol, SkyTeam and partners have a monopoly. The majority of these markets are very small with only a few passengers per day. At bigger, long-haul markets, the airport faces heavy competition from other hubs. The most important competitors of SkyTeam at Amsterdam are still the traditional two: Frankfurt (Star alliance) and Heathrow (Oneworld). Paris CDG frequently pops up as an important hub on markets also served by Amsterdam Schiphol. However, since the Paris and Amsterdam hubs belong to the same carrier Air France-KLM, this is rather network overlap than network competition. In the various geographical submarkets, also competitors arise besides Heathrow and Frankfurt. Between Europe and North America, Chicago (Oneworld/Star) arises besides Heathrow and Frankfurt whereas alliance hubs of Newark (Continental) and New York JFK (Delta) also play an important role. Between Europe and Asia, Munich, Dubai, Singapore and Helsinki pop up as competitors, whereas in the intra-European market the Star alliance competes with SkyTeam not only via Frankfurt but also via Munich and Copenhagen. Between Europe and Latin-America, Iberia at Madrid is the biggest competitor on hub markets served via Schiphol whereas Air France via Paris shows a large overlap with the Schiphol hub. The model presented here is in particular relevant for governments and airports that want to benchmark the competitive position of a hub airport accurately and go beyond the traditional ‘top ten' list of passenger numbers.