The Spanish aviation network: the competitive position of Madrid and the Mediterranean axis, 2000-2008

Citation:

Suau-Sanchez, M., Burghouwt, G. & Pallares-Barbera, M., 2009. The Spanish aviation network: the competitive position of Madrid and the Mediterranean axis, 2000-2008. In Papers from the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers . San Francisco. San Francisco: Association of American Geographers.

Abstract:

Since the liberalization of the European air transport market large airlines have built hub-and-spoke networks. However, since 2001 a number of European hubs have been torn down by their home based carriers. For example, British Airways at London Gatwick and Air France at Clermont-Ferrand. One of the last examples of network rationalization is the end of hub operations at Barcelona airport by Iberia. Instead, Iberia has been implementing a single hub operation in Madrid-Barajas.The first goal of this paper is to discuss the evolution of the Spanish airline network for the period 2000-2008. With this paper the authors fill a gap in the current scientific literature about the changing the connectivity levels and the competitive position of the Spanish airports and airline networks. Special attention will be given to the recent changes in the role of Madrid and Barcelona. We use the so-called NETSCAN model to quantify connectivity levels of airports and airline networks. Netscan measures the number of direct and indirect (transfer) connections and weighs these connections for their quality in terms of transfer and detour times.The second goal of this paper is to evaluate the competitive position in the air transport market of the Madrid mega-city region and the airport system of the Mediterranean axis (airports of Girona, Barcelona, Reus, Valencia and Alicante). First findings of this ongoing research show that in the Mediterranean axis while direct connectivity to Europe improves thanks to low-cost carriers, direct and indirect connectivity in the intercontinental market decreases dramatically. Descriptors: Airports | Evolution Models |

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Last updated on 05/17/2011