Examination of low-cost carriers' development at secondary airports using a comprehensive world airport classification

Abstract

The existing literature appears to suggest that low-cost carriers (LCCs) tend to focus their business at “secondary airports” instead of “primary airports”. However, there lack systematic quantifiers to distinguish the two airport types. The present paper investigates whether this remark still holds today, and if not, whether the change is a worldwide phenomenon. We first establish a systematic parameterization to classify airport types, based on aviation network connectivity, regional importance, and MAR (multi-airport region) effects. With this classification of world airports, our analysis of the latest empirical data shows that some previously indubitable features of LCCs might have slowly changed. In particular, LCCs are expanding fast at both upper-tiers’ and lower-tiers’ airports, and there is a trend of shifting airport choice from lower-tiers’ to upper-tiers’ airports for LCCs in some continents. The evolving competition relationship between the full-service carriers (FSCs) and LCCs is also discussed.