Transport Economics

This paper analyzes the geography of seat capacity at Spanish airports between 2001 and 2008. Concentration and deconcentration patterns for different markets have been identified. For this purpose, we use the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI), the Concentration Ratio (CX) and the Lorenz curve. From our analysis, we conclude that seat capacity follows a deconcentration pattern due to the growth of low-cost carriers at small- and medium-sized Spanish airports. This is in line with earlier studies for Europe as a whole. Intercontinental seat capacity still remains very much concentrated in Madrid and, to a lesser extent, in Barcelona. However, new strategies by long-haul airlines bypassing the primary European hubs foster the deconcentration of seat capacity in the Asian and North American markets. In the case of Spain, the recent liberalization of the EU-US market may become an important enabler of such network strategies, e.g., Delta has operated a route from Valencia to New York-JFK since 2009. In other intercontinental markets, capacity is more and more concentrated in Madrid. We highlight the restructuring of Iberia’s network as an important factor behind the increasing dominance of Madrid in intercontinental markets.

The article first describes characteristics of major infrastructure projects. Second, it documents a much neglected topic in economics: that ex ante estimates of costs and benefits are often very different from actual ex post costs and benefits. For large infrastructure projects the consequences are cost overruns, benefit shortfalls, and the systematic underestimation of risks. Third, implications for cost–benefit analysis are described, including that such analysis is not to be trusted for major infrastructure projects. Fourth, the article uncovers the causes of this state of affairs in terms of perverse incentives that encourage promoters to underestimate costs and overestimate benefits in the business cases for their projects. But the projects that are made to look best on paper are the projects that amass the highest cost overruns and benefit shortfalls in reality. The article depicts this situation as ‘survival of the unfittest’. Fifth, the article sets out to explain how the problem may be solved, with a view to arriving at more efficient and more democratic projects, and avoiding the scandals that often accompany major infrastructure investments. Finally, the article identifies current trends in major infrastructure development. It is argued that a rapid increase in stimulus spending, combined with more investments in emerging economies, combined with more spending on information technology is catapulting infrastructure investment from the frying pan into the fire.

This paper evaluates the connectivity of the Spanish airport system between 2001 and 2007, taking into account both direct and indirect connections. The results show important changes in the airport connectivity patterns. Hub carriers strengthened the connectivity between Spanish airports and the main European hubs substantially. Although OneWorld is still the dominant alliance in Spain, SkyTeam and Star achieved a larger connectivity share because of the growth in indirect connectivity provided through their northern European hubs. In addition, we find that the network rationalization strategy of Iberia and its decision of concentrating its operations at Madrid-Barajas had important implications for the connectivity of other Spanish airports. Low-cost carriers have boosted direct connectivity from secondary Spanish airports. For our connectivity analyses, the Netscan model was used. Netscan quantifies the quality of an indirect connection and scales it to the quality of a theoretical connection. Frequency, transfer time, in-flight time and routing factors are taken into account to assess connection quality.

This paper aims to discuss and initiate a debate on the competition and regulation in the institutional environment of transports. For this purpose, this work consists of an introduction in addition to three other parts plus the final considerations. In the first part, some situations related to the governmental policies are exposed, in which it is identified a latent need to reform the institutional apparatus. In the second part, the competition is introduced as a dynamic tool for the transport sector, whose application is fundamental in order to extinguish monopoly deficiencies and stimulate competition. Finally, in the third part, a brief study on the regulation and on the role of the regulator is carried. Throughout this paper, connections with recommendations from, among others, international organisms, such as OECD and the World Bank, are made.

Studies of urban freight mobility traditionally focused only on restocking flows and usually neglected the linkage with shopping activities even if end consumer's choices in relation to the type of retail undoubtedly impact on freight distribution flows. The paper focuses on the distribution of urban freight facilities, the choices of type of retail and the travel mode used and some models for simulating the choice of retail outlet and the transport mode are presented. The models, jointly with urban freight demand models were used to assess the effects of some land-use scenarios and to define optimal spatial distribution of urban freight facilities able to improve city sustainability and to meet the interests of end consumers, freight operators and society. The results of an application of this method to a test site are also reported and discussed.

This paper is intended to present a plan for installing a network of electric vehicle charging stations in the city of Rio de Janeiro. It is important to underline the fact that this text results from a research and development project called Planning and Analysis Methodology for the Implementation of Electric Vehicles in Transport Activities in the realm of the Brazilian electric energy regulatory agency, ANEEL, carried out by the distribution power company Light S.E.S.A. in partnership with the Vehicle Propulsion Systems and Electrochemical Sources Laboratory of the Rio de Janeiro State University – UERJ.

Research into the connection between tourism and public road accessibility raises a rather large number of methodology-related questions. Thus, the authors do not intend to study this connection but our study aims to explore to what extent tourism incomes from accommodation receipts is connected to accessible public roads, or whether it is primarily dependent on the local characteristics of the given regions. Firstly, we analyse the features and components by applying a loglinear model to the tourism regions of Hungary. In the second part of the paper, the authors also intend to estimate, by applying the gravitation model, the extent of domestic multi-day holidays with a comparison of estimated and real values. Through this, the authors attempt to reveal the characteristics of domestic tourist flows in Hungary. This study also indicates no absolute connection between the improvement of accessibility and the increase of tourism-generated incomes. Incomes from international tourism are far more susceptible to favourable accessibility than domestic ones. In the context of the size of incomes, the role of interaction between the regions and accessibility groups is also relevant. For this, the authors conclude that for all four accessibility groups – both domestic and international tourism incomes – at the same regions the multiplier is the highest. The difference was found in the value of multipliers indicating differences among the regions as well as in accessibility between the domestic and international incomes. Based upon the difference between the theoretical and actual tourist flows, we conclude that in the Hungarian context, theoretical flows are somewhat higher compared to actual ones. Among the original planning-statistical regions, primarily their economic development is of decisive importance, thus mainly the role of the Central Hungarian and the Transdanubian regions can be mentioned. Of the tourism-recipient regions, the Budapest–Central Danube Basin region is outstanding. Similarly, positive deviation is seen in the cases of the Lake Balaton, Western Transdanubia and Lake Tisza regions, reflecting possibilities of their development. Conversely, the number of domestic tourists visiting the three East-Hungarian tourism regions is lower than the theoretical value.