Regional Jet, Cancer or Cure. A Trend Analysis Detailing the Effects of the Regional Jet on the Quality of Air Service Offered at Small Community Airports

摘要

There are 201 communities across the continental United States with 50,000 or less enplanements and commercial air service being provided exclusively by turboprop or propeller driven aircraft. The character and quality of air service to these communities has been consistently changing since the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978. The insurgence of the Regional Jet into the regional aviation marketplace has been the recent instigator that has changed the quality determinants of regional air service. This study determines the influence of these factors in the determination of an airport's demand for air service, to predict which of the 201 communities would most likely lose its air service. The resulting findings were that 79 of the 201 small community airports were identified as those who had a possibility of losing air service and 34 of those 7 were identified as airports most likely to lose air service in the next decade.