GEOG 80 – Transport GeographyProfessor: Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue

Transportation Modes

Air Transport

5. Air Transport

■ Context• Air routes are practically unlimited:

• North Atlantic.• Inside North America and Europe.• Over the North Pacific.• Inside Asia.

• Multidimensional constraints:• Site (a commercial plane needs about 3,300 meters of track for landing

and take off).• Climate, fog and aerial currents.

• Air activities are linked to the tertiary and quaternary sectors:• Finance and tourism that require movements of people.

• Accommodating growing quantities of high value freight.

5. Air Transport

■ Air Space• Segment of the atmosphere that is under the jurisdiction of a

nation or under an international agreement for its use.• Two major components:

• Land-based; takeoffs and landings.• Air-based; composed of air corridors.

• Air corridors can superimpose themselves to altitudes up to 22,500 meters.

• Limited to the use of predetermined corridors. ■ Air space use• Air space exclusively belongs to the country under it.• Access to the land and air-based components is dependent on

agreements between nations and airline companies.• Air freedom rights.

Air Freedom Rights

First Second

Home

Country A

Country B

Third

Fourth Fifth Sixth

Seventh Eight Ninth

5. Air Transport

■ Development of air transportation• Technical improvements:

• Jet engine considerably reduced distances, namely because of greater speeds and improved ranges.

• Almost every part of the world can be serviced in less than 24 hours.• Rising affluence:

• Linked with income and economic output growth.• Disposable income available for leisure.• International tourism and air transportation are mutually interdependent.

• Globalization:• Trade networks established by multinational corporations.• About 40% of the value of global manufactured exports.• About 50% of the value of American overseas - non-NAFTA - exports.

5. Air Transport

■ Airline companies• Highly capital intensive segment of transport services.• Labor intensive, with limited room to lessen those labor

requirements.• Around 900 airlines operating 11,600 commercial aircrafts.• Average number of 200 seats per plane.• Dominant share of the traffic is assumed by large passengers

and freight carriers.■ Strategic alliances• Joint booking systems, exchange of shares, and a reorganization

of their services in order to minimize redundancy.• Increased market dominance but also increased competition

between major markets.

World’s 10 Largest Passengers Airlines, 2000 (in 1,000 passengers)

0 20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000 100,000 120,000

Delta Air Lines

American Airlines

United Airlines

Northwest Airlines

US Airways

Lufthansa

Continental Airlines

All Nippon Airways

Air France

British Airways

Market Share of World Airline Traffic, 2003

Oneworld

American Airlines, British Airways, Aer Lingus, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, LanChile, Quantas

Star

United Airlines, Lufthansa, Air Canada, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana, Austrian, bmi british midland, LOT Polish Airlines, Mexicana, SAS, Singapore, Spanair, Thai Airways, Varig, US Airways, TAM

SkyTeam

Air France, Delta Airlines, Aeromexico, Alitalia, CSA Czech Airlines, Korean Air, Northwest, Continental, KLM

Oneworld17%

Star24%

SkyTeam21%

Others38%

5. Air Transport

■ Flows• 1.4 billion passengers traveled by air transport (2000).• 2.8 billion departures and arrivals supported by airports.• Equivalent of 23% of the global population.• 30 million tons of freight were transported.• Air traffic is globally highly imbalanced:

• Distribution of the population.• Unequal levels of development.• Concentration of traffic in a limited number of hubs.

• 80% of the global population lives in the Northern Hemisphere:• Air traffic is much denser north of the equator.

• North America and Europe accounted for 70.4% of all passenger movements in 2000.

Major Air Traffic Flows Between Regions, 2000 (% of IATA Scheduled Passengers)

35.523.2

15.9

3.2

1.3 1.1

2.6

1.5

3.9

1.9

1.31.8

1.71.7

North America

Central America

South America Africa

Europe

Middle East Asia

Southwest Pacific

1.7

6. Modal Competition

■ Integrated transportation systems• Requires maximum flexibility.• Modal competition exists at various degrees and takes several

dimensions.• Modes can compete or complement each other:

• Cost, speed, accessibility, frequency, safety, comfort, etc.• Intermodal transportation:

• Opened many opportunities for complementarity.• Intense competition over many modes in the transport chain.

6. Modal Competition

■ Three dimensions of modal competition• Modal usage:

• Comparative advantage of using a specific or a combination of modes.• Distance remains one of the basic determinant of modal usage.• The basic determinants of modal usage for passengers transportation.• For a similar distance, costs, speed and comfort can be significant factors.

• Infrastructure usage:• Competition resulting from the presence of freight and passenger traffic

on the same itineraries linking the same nodes.• Market area:

• Competition being experienced between transport terminals for allocating new space or capturing new markets.

Modal Competition

A

B

Mode

1 23

A

B

Infrastructure / Route

A

B

A

B

4 5

6

A

B

Market Area

Passenger Transport by Mode, Japan, 1950-1999

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 1999

Bill

ions

of P

asse

nger

Kilo

met

ers

Airline

Railway

Bus

Auto