Introduction to special issue 'Pricing and regulation in the airline industry'

摘要

The airline industry is more than competition between the passenger airline companies, and regulation is more than competition policy and safety rules. This is the key message of this Special Issue of Research in Transportation Economics. Furthermore, this issue is more than just about the economics of the aviation sector, as the legal side of the issue is also represented in it. This issue includes nine papers, which are diverse in terms of both the issues covered and the methodological approaches employed. The studies are roughly equally divided between airlines and airports. Only two papers deal directly with how airlines price their tickets, and one airline paper examines the cost side of the business. Of the airport studies, two are cost-estimation exercises, one evaluates whether pricing of airport services is efficient, a theoretical paper examines the airport-airline relationships, and another theoretical study looks into the issue of airport slot allocation. Last but not least, a study of the liability and compensation framework in international aviation provides a glimpse into the legal side of the industry.