The Economic Cost of Airline Flight Delay

摘要

Flight delay has become widespread in the United States with nearly one-quarter of all flights delayed by more than 15 minutes in 2007. This paper determines the economic costs of delayed flights, including the direct effects of increased airline cost and the indirect effects of lost labour productivity for business travellers, an opportunity cost of time for leisure travellers, and changes in consumer spending on travel and tourism goods and services. US net welfare would increase by $17.6 billion for a 10 per cent reduction in flight delay and by $38.5 billion for a 30 per cent reduction.