Spatially Characterizing Major Airline Alliances: A Network Analysis

Chun-Hsiang Chan,Tzu-How Chu,Jiun-Huei Proty Wu,Tzai-Hung Wen

doi:10.3390/ijgi10010037

Chun-Hsiang Chan, Tzu-How Chu + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi10010037

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Abstract

An airline alliance is a group of member airlines that seek to achieve the same goals through routes and airports. Hence, airports’ connectivity plays an essential role in understanding the linkage between different markets, especially the impact of neighboring airports on focal airports. An airline alliance airport network (AAAN) comprises airports as nodes and routes as edges. It could reflect a clear collaborative proportion within AAAN and competitive routes between AAANs. Recent studies adopted an airport- or route-centric perspective to evaluate the relationship between airline alliances and their member airlines; meanwhile, they mentioned that an airport community could provide valuable air transportation information because it considers the entire network structure, including the impacts of the direct and indirect routes. The objectives are to identify spatial patterns of market region in an airline alliance and characterize the differences among airline alliances (Oneworld, Star Alliance, and SkyTeam), including regions of collaboration, competition, and dominance. Our results show that Star Alliance has the highest collaboration and international market dominance among three airline alliances. The most competitive regions are Asia-Pacific, West Asia, Europe, and North and Central America. The network approach we proposed identifies market characteristics, highlights the region of market advantages in the airline alliance, and also provides more insights for airline and airline alliances to extend their market share or service areas.

Highlights

In the highly competitive commercial air transportation market, airline alliances are groups that contain several member airlines seeking to achieve the same goals [1,2].As a member of such an alliance, airlines can expand their networks and increase the frequency of their flights by collaborating with other member airlines; they can reduce the cost of their facilities, expansion, and marketing [3,4,5]
The methods consist of three parts: first, we identify the airport community as highdensity market regions with the Infomap algorithm and highlight important airports by their PageRank values; second, all airport communities are classified into domestic and international airport communities according to the proportion of airport nationalities within an airport community; we evaluate three major metrics to measure the collaborative proportion within an airline alliance, dominant routes between airline alliances, and competitive routes among airline alliances
The data shows that Star Alliance has the widest market layout, the largest market share, and the highest number of member airlines, destinations, routes, and flights among the three airline alliances

Summary

Introduction

In the highly competitive commercial air transportation market, airline alliances are groups that contain several member airlines seeking to achieve the same goals [1,2].As a member of such an alliance, airlines can expand their networks and increase the frequency of their flights by collaborating with other member airlines; they can reduce the cost of their facilities, expansion, and marketing [3,4,5]. In the highly competitive commercial air transportation market, airline alliances are groups that contain several member airlines seeking to achieve the same goals [1,2]. Airline alliances want to expand their market region and raise their market share; all member airlines within an airline alliance are from different countries (except for one particular case in the SkyTeam alliance). Market-related airline alliance studies have mainly focused on the traffic impact of member airlines [6], the advantages of code-sharing [7,8], the collaborative relationships within airline alliances, and the competitive relationships among airline alliances [9,10]; the studies have neglected to investigate the connectivity of airports within an airline alliance. Connectivity in the aviation market plays an essential role in linking one airport to another within a market

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