Resilience Endangered: The Role of Regional Airports in Remote Areas in Sweden

This paper examines the role of regional airports in regional and municipal crisis preparedness based on evidence from a case study in Sweden. During the summer of 2018, Sweden experienced some of the most extensive wildfires in modern time. Aerial suppression, for which airports provided the essential preconditions, played an important role in extinguishing these fires. This study includes analyses of public policies that shape the Swedish airport system as well as evidence from interviews and a workshop with stakeholders. The results show that an efficiently operated network of regional airports is critical not only for crisis management but also to ensure important societal services such as health care in sparsely inhabited regions. Moreover, access to quick transportation by air is necessary for the Swedish Prison and Probation Service, tourism industry, public institutions and private businesses. Additionally intensified by effects of both the public debate on flight shame and the COVID-19 pandemic on air-based transportation, the insights arising from this study emphasise that the currently one-sided focus on the number of passengers is an insufficient foundation for the Swedish airport system to construct a resilient base for regional development, crisis management and civil defense.

The Role of Regional Airports in Connectivity and Regional Development

This article analyzes the contribution of regional airports in Colombia to the development of the domestic air transport network, and with it, to the connectivity of the regions and their social and economic development. The growth and evolution of Colombian regional airports are supported and driven by a set of public and investment policies, designed exclusively for the air sector and implemented, almost continuously, since the liberalization of the air transport industry in the country in the early 1990s and are still in development. Having said this, this work analyzes how the network of regional airports have been able to develop in two and a half decades through public policies, and later, how these airports have positively impacted connectivity and socioeconomic development in the territories. All this is done through the presentation and analysis of related indicators.

Nudging Consumers Toward Greener Air Travel by Adding Carbon to the Equation in Online Flight Search

This study explores the potential to promote lower-emissions air travel by providing consumers with information about the carbon emissions of alternative flight choices in the context of online flight search and booking. We surveyed over 450 employees of the University of California, Davis, asking them to choose among hypothetical flight options for university-related business trips. Emissions estimates for flight alternatives were prominently displayed alongside cost, layovers, and airport, and the lowest-emissions flight was labeled “Greenest Flight.” We found an impressive rate of willingness to pay for lower-emissions flights: around $200/ton of CO2e saved, a magnitude higher than that seen in carbon offsets programs, and consistent with findings from a prior study with a non-university-based sample. In a second step of analysis, we estimated the carbon and cost impacts if the university were to adopt a flight-search interface that prioritizes carbon emissions information and displays alternatives from multiple regional airports in their employee travel-booking portal. We estimated potential annual savings of 79 tons of CO2e, while reducing airfare costs by $56,000, mainly through an increased willingness of travelers to take advantage of cheaper nonstop (lower-emissions) flights from a more distant airport in the region over indirect flights from their preferred airport for medium-distance flights. Institutionalizing this strategy within organizations with large travel budgets could reduce personal and organizational carbon footprints. If implemented across major flight-search engines, it could potentially reduce the demand for higher-emissions flights, leading to an industry-wide impact on aviation emissions.

Improving Air Transportation by Using the Fuzzy Origin–Destination Matrix

The work is devoted to the development of new methods and algorithms to support decision making when planning air travel using uncertainties in the form of fuzzy numbers. The proposed approach makes it possible to define rational methods of choice: how to change the transport graph to better meet the needs of the population. This is particularly relevant in the context of the reduced demand for air travel caused by the pandemic and the need to switch from large to smaller aircraft types. The problem is solved by restoring the fuzzy origin–destination matrix of current statistics on air traffic between airports. The problem is that we do not know what proportion of passengers moving between the specified points are forced to use large transport hubs as intermediate destinations. To determine the validity of the origin–destination matrix, we build a number of optimization models to determine fuzzy intervals and search for correspondence with the maximum value of the membership function. Algorithmic and software search for the fuzzy origin–destination matrix and fuzzy ranking of potentially promising routes are developed. The perspective of the given approach is shown by an example of a task concerning a choice of new routes between regional airports.

Prospects for the Development of Simferopol International Airport in the Context of Overcoming the Crisis of Macroeconomic Instability

The article presents the results of a study of the activities of the International Airport "Simferopol". After the Republic of Crimea became a part of the Russian Federation, one of the priorities of the state's domestic policy was the development of the regional infrastructure of the Crimean Peninsula. Simferopol International Airport occupies a special position in the structure of regional airports of the Southern Federal District. Regional airports of the Southern Federal District serve a significant part of the seasonal tourist flow of citizens coming from the regions of the Russian Federation. Based on the analysis of the tourist flow of the Republic of Crimea in the period from 2014 to 2020, as well as on the basis of a comparative analysis of Simferopol International Airport with other regional airports in the Southern Federal District and the analysis of the experience of European airlines in developing the route network on the basis of regional airports, a model of the prospective development of Simferopol International Airport in the period 2021-2025 was developed. It is important to note that the positive economic effect of the airport development will be achieved both at the regional and national level.

Virtual Airport Hub—A New Business Model to Reduce GHG Emissions in Continental Air Transport

The virtual airport hub business model is an innovative solution supported by digital technologies; the implementation of which in continental air transport may lead to a reduction in energy consumption and to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The prerequisites for the implementation of the described solution are as follows: striving to implement the GHG emission reduction strategy laid out in the Paris Agreement (2015) and the European Green Deal (2019) as well as the EU digitalization strategy (2020). The use of predictive analytics to identify the mobility needs of population and operational capabilities of the sector gives an opportunity to plan travel flows and to create an appropriate set of direct connections among regional airports every day. The results of the analysis of data from 2019 on the amount of energy consumption and GHG emissions indicate that in Europe, it would be possible to achieve reduce GHG emissions by 5% without reducing the number of passengers using air transport. The study was prepared after conducting literature studies, data analysis, and using the method of formulating scenarios. The proposed solution has the features of an innovative business model, the implementation of which allows for obtaining more favorable effects using already available resources.

Regional Airports of the Central Federal District: Development Prospects in the Context of Macroeconomic Instability

Based on the analysis of passenger traffic at the airports of the Moscow Aviation Hub and regional airports of the Central Federal District, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the dynamics of passenger traffic was assessed. As a result of the system analysis, it was concluded that the growth of passenger traffic at the airports of Yaroslavl and Kursk is due to the expansion of the internal route network. As a result of the introduction of temporary prohibitive and restrictive measures for international air transportation, there was an increase in demand for domestic destinations. The airports of Yaroslavl and Kursk, in the summer of 2020, opened regular flights to the resort cities of the Southern Federal District. Based on the analysis of passenger traffic dynamics, it is concluded that an important factor in the development of regional airports in the Central Federal District is their structural modernization. The current passenger traffic index of regional airports can be significantly increased if the runways and terminal complex are expanded. The results of the study can be applied in the development of a strategy for the development of regional airports, of which there are more than 200 as of 2021 on the territory of the Russian Federation and many of which need structural modernization. In the context of the development of the airport complex in the Russian market of passenger air transportation, there will be a dynamic increase in passenger traffic.

Virtual Airport Hub – a New Business Model to Reduce GHG Emissions in Continental Air Transport

The virtual airport hub business model is an innovative solution supported by digital technologies, the implementation of which in continental air transport may lead to a reduction in energy consumption and to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The prerequisites for the implementation of the described solution are: striving to implement the GHG emission reduction strategy laid out in the Paris Agreement (2015) and the European Green Deal (2019) as well as the EU digitalization strategy (2020). The use of predictive analitics to identify the mobility needs of population and operational capabilities of the sector, gives an opportunity to plan travel flows and to create an appropriate set of direct connections among regional airports every day. The results of the analysis of data from 2019 on the amount of energy consumption and GHG emissions indicate that in Europe, it would be possible to achieve reduce GHG emissions by 5% without reducing the number of passengers using air transport. The study was prepared after conducting literature studies, data analysis and using the method of formulating scenarios. The proposed solution has the features of an innovative business model, the implementation of which allows for obtaining more favorable effects using already available resources.