Exploring Airport Access and Accessibility: Regional and National Perspectives A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Drexel University by Fangwu Wei in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy June 2016 © Copyright 2016 Fangwu Wei. All Rights Reserved. i Dedicated to my parents and my wife ii Acknowledgments There are a number of people who have helped and encouraged me a lot over the last five years. Dr. Tony H. Grubesic, my advisor and committee co-chair, is the first and foremost person I would like to thank for his patient guidance and consistent help to my dissertation, other research work and career development. He supported my research ideas, gave invaluable advice, showed me how to perform solid research and taught me how to write papers for publication. I am grateful to him for lifting me to a whole new level. I would also like to thank my committee chair, Dr. Chaomei Chen, and my committee members, Dr. Ali Shokoufandeh, Dr. Daoqin Tong and Dr. Ran Wei, for their help to improve the quality of this dissertation and to offer professional advice for my career. I also want to express my gratitude to Marie Fazio for her consistent care and help to my dissertation. To my parents and parents-in-law, thank you for encouraging and supporting me in my graduate studies. Finally, I want to thank my wife for accompanying and supporting me. That means a lot to me. iii Table of Contents 1. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background ............................................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Objectives and Research Structure ........................................................................................ 4 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................................ 8 2.1 Deregulation and Competition in the Airline Industry .......................................................... 8 2.1.1 Deregulation .................................................................................................................... 8 2.1.2 Airport Competition ...................................................................................................... 10 2.1.3 Airport leakage and choice ........................................................................................... 12 2.2 Airport Structure and Associated Network Evaluation ........................................................ 16 2.2.1 Basic structures ............................................................................................................. 16 2.2.2 Advanced Network Evaluation ..................................................................................... 19 2.3 Airport Performance and Efficiency .................................................................................... 23 2.3.1 Spatial Evaluation ......................................................................................................... 23 2.3.2 Operational Evaluation ................................................................................................. 25 2.3.3 Interaction with local markets ....................................................................................... 28 3. STUDY 1: EXPLORING DEHUBBING AT ONE AIRPORT ................................................ 32 3.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 32 3.2 Background .......................................................................................................................... 35 3.2.1 Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) ........................................ 35 3.2.2 CVG as A Hub .............................................................................................................. 37 3.3 Data and Methods ................................................................................................................ 40 3.3.1 Air Traffic and Airport Data ......................................................................................... 40 3.3.2 Street Network Data ...................................................................................................... 42 3.3.3 Business data and ZIP code areas ................................................................................. 42 3.3.4 Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) .................................................................. 44 3.3.5 Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) ....................................... 45 3.4 Results .................................................................................................................................. 48 3.4.1 Airport Market Structures ............................................................................................. 48 3.4.2 The Dehubbing of CVG ................................................................................................ 50 3.5 Discussion and Conclusion .................................................................................................. 68 4. STUDY 2: EVALUATING GEOGRAPHIC MARKETS AT EAS AIRPORTS ..................... 74 4.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 74 iv 4.2 Background .......................................................................................................................... 75 4.3 Data and Methods ................................................................................................................ 76 4.3.1 Business Data ................................................................................................................ 77 4.3.2 Demographic, Spatial, and Airport Data ....................................................................... 78 4.3.3 Catchment Area Generation .......................................................................................... 79 4.3.4 Regression Models ........................................................................................................ 80 4.4 Results .................................................................................................................................. 84 4.4.1 Regression ..................................................................................................................... 86 4.5 Discussion and Conclusion .................................................................................................. 90 5. STUDY 3: EVALUATING NETWORK ACCESSIBILITY AND CREATING A TYPOLOGY OF RURAL AIRPORTS ......................................................................................... 96 5.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 96 5.2 Background .......................................................................................................................... 99 5.2.1 Rural Airports ............................................................................................................... 99 5.3 Data and Methods .............................................................................................................. 103 5.3.1 Airline and Airport Data ............................................................................................. 103 5.3.2 Network Analysis ........................................................................................................ 104 5.3.3 Cluster Analysis .......................................................................................................... 106 5.4 Results ................................................................................................................................ 107 5.4.1 Rural Markets .............................................................................................................. 108 5.4.2 Rural Airport Peer Groups .......................................................................................... 116 5.4.3 Transitory Peers .......................................................................................................... 122 5.5 Discussion and Conclusion ................................................................................................ 124 6. STUDY 4: EXPLORING THE SPATIOTEMPORAL TRENDS IN AIR FARES AT U.S. AIRPORTS AND ASSOCIATED PAIRS .................................................................................. 130 6.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 130 6.2 Background ........................................................................................................................ 132 6.2.1 Analytics to Capture Air Fare Trends ......................................................................... 132 6.3 Data and Methods .............................................................................................................. 133 6.3.1 Airline and Airport Data ............................................................................................. 133 6.3.2 Index Development ..................................................................................................... 134 6.4 Results ...............................................................................................................................