Abstract
Air service has become one of the most dynamically evolving components of the integrated transportation system in Russia and around the world. It is a major type of medium- and long-distance transportation. The spatial structure of air service has been extensively studied in geography; however, we propose an analysis of this structure using such characteristics of highest passenger importance as air travel frequency and travel time in light of all additional expenses and weighted-average fares on each route. This type of passenger travel studies is not a common practice because of the complexity of actual data collection. This work is aimed at filling this gap; it analyzes the distribution of the network of operating airports in EuropeanRussia. A typology of airlines by weighted-average fare level is presented. Three major centers that attract air passengers are identified: Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Black Sea resorts. A classification of cities is proposed according to transport accessibility from these centers in terms of air travel frequency, travel time, and fares, integrated in a single technique. It is found that assignment of a particular city to a specific class depends on its remoteness from the centers of attraction, the structure of airlines, the availability and character of alternative transport, and average time on the road from the city center to city airports. According to calculations by the proposed technique, the best transport accessibility is characteristic of the major cities of European Russia, some cities in the Extreme North and the North Caucasus; the poorest transport accessibility is characteristic of most cities in Central Russia.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Burilina, M.A. and Shestakov, V.A., Influence of the economic and political factors on the development of air transportation in Russia, Ekon. Anal.: Teor. Prakt., 2014, no. 31, pp. 46–56.
Ginzburg, E.S., Improvement of the spatial organization of air transport in Russia, Cand. Sci. (Geogr.) Dissertation, Kaliningrad: Kant Ross. State Univ., 2009.
Grigor’ev, I.Yu., Modern trends in the development of the air transportation market, Byull. Transp. Inf., 2007, no. 6, pp. 4–8.
Efremova, N.I., Evaluation of the competitiveness of airlines between St. Petersburg and Moscow, Probl. Sovrem. Ekon., 2010, nos. 1–3, pp. 245–248.
Noskov, M.V., Geographical problems of development of world passenger air transport, Vestn. Mosk. Univ., Ser. 5: Geogr., 1998, no. 2, pp. 10–14.
Semenov, A.A., Geographical features of the development and operation of the global system of budget air transportation, Reg. Issled., 2012, no. 2, pp. 139–151.
Fridlyand, A.A. and Mordasov, O.D., Competition and pricing on the largest domestic airlines, Nauch. Vestn. Gos. Nauchno-Issled. Inst. Grazhd. Aviats., 2016, no. 13, pp. 67–75.
Alderighi, M., Cento, A., Nijkamp, P., and Rietveld, P., Assessment of new hub-and-spoke and point-to-point airline network configurations, Transp. Rev., 2007, vol. 27, no. 5, pp. 529–549.
Brueckner, J., Lee, D., and Singer, E., Airline competition and domestic U.S. airfares: a comprehensive reappraisal, Econ. Transp., 2013, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 1–17.
Burghouwt, G., Hakfoort, J., and Ritsema van Eck, J., The spatial configuration of airline networks in Europe, J. Air Transp. Manage., 2003, vol. 9, no. 5, pp. 309–323.
Dennis, N., End of the free lunch? The responses of traditional European airlines to the low-cost carrier threat, J. Air Transp. Manage., 2007, vol. 13, no. 5, pp. 311–321.
Franke, M., Competition between network carriers and low-cost carriers—retreat battle of breakthrough to a new level of efficiency? J. Air Transp. Manage., 2004, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 15–21.
Goetz, A.R. and Vowles, T.M., The good, the bad, and the ugly: 30 years of US airline deregulation, J. Transp. Geogr., 2009, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 251–263.
Roman, C., Espino, R., and Martin, J.C., Competition of high-speed train with air transport: the case of Madrid–Barcelona, J. Air Transp. Manage., 2007, vol. 13, no. 5, pp. 277–284.
Tarkhov, S.A., Changes in air transport connectivity of Russian cities in 1990–2015, Reg. Res. Russ., 2017, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 127–145.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Original Russian Text © A.S. Neretin, 2017, published in Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, Seriya Geograficheskaya, 2017, No. 6, pp. 19–38.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Neretin, A.S. Spatial Structure of Passenger Air Services in European Russia. Reg. Res. Russ. 8, 67–83 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1134/S2079970518010070
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S2079970518010070