ТЕРРИТОРИАЛЬНАЯ СТРУКТУРА ПАССАЖИРСКОГО АВИАЦИОННОГО ТРАНСПОРТА В ЕВРОПЕЙСКОЙ РОССИИ

Abstract

Passenger air transport has become one of the most dynamic parts of integrated transport system both in Russia and around the world. It is the most important mode of transport on many mid-distance and long-distance routes. Its spatial structure is studied broadly in geography, but in this paper air transport is analyzed with parameters that are crucial for passengers: number of flights, flight time (all kinds of additional time loss are included), and weighted average fare for each direction. Because of the complexity of data gathering, investigation of passenger transport by this way has not received wide development, and present study aims to fill this gap. Spatial distribution of active airports in European Russia is analyzed. Typology of airline companies (that operate in European Russia) by weighted average fare level is suggested. Three dominant attraction centers for air passengers are determined: Moscow, St. Petersburg and Black Sea resorts. Airport classification is defined by three parameters integrated into a single methodology: number of flights, flight time and fare that are calculated for each route, which connects airport with dominant attraction centers. Airport class depends on its remoteness from dominant attraction centers, structure of airline companies, availability of alternative transport modes, average time loss during trip between center of city and its airport. The calculation by the proposed method showed that big cities in European Russia, some cities of European North and North Caucasus regions have best air transport accessibility while many cities in Central Russia have the worst air transport accessibility.