TRANSPORT: Small Airports - Big Business
ARTICLES
BIG AND SMALL AIRPORTS FACE THE SAME CHALLENGES
Big hubs and small airports alike face a series of various challenges. However, small and medium-sized airports are struggling more due to lack of support. Airports are the nodes in air transport logistics. Regardless of whether we talk about freight or passengers, the airport is the point in the transport flow where ground meets air. This brings about a number of interesting time management and logistics challenges.
SMALL AIRPORTS AND LOW COST CARRIERS: A LOVE AND HATE RELATIONSHIP
There are approximately 200 airports in Europe that can be classed as underutilized with less than 1 million passengers per annum and the majority is loss-making, publicly owned and subsidized by central or regional government. Identifying ways to increase passenger numbers, such as attracting low cost carriers is an appealing way for airport managers to improve their financial performance. Airports have large fixed infrastructure costs and studies have demonstrated that unit costs decline signi...
AIRPORTS DRIVING TOURISM DEVELOPMENT OF EUROPE
Airports play a major role in facilitating the development of inbound tourism. This is particularly the case for more remote or island destinations. For example, 70% of foreign tourists to the United Kingdom arrive by air, 55 21% of all foreign tourist arrivals in Greece travel through Athens Airport and 32% of foreign tourists to the Lisbon area arrive through Lisbon Airport. Vienna Airport plays a key role in tourism to Austria. Approximately 37% of visitors to Vienna travel by air, remaining ...
THE CASE OF POLAND - REGIONAL AIRPORTS TO SHAPE THE FUTURE
Airports in Poland are currently experiencing very rapid growth, as a result of the fastest increase in air traffic anywhere in the world. However, Polish airports still suffer from underinvestment, inadequate infrastructure and limited capacity. The sector is expecting investments worth an estimated €1.2bn between 2007 and 2013, with credible plans to establish several new civil airports in Poland. The Polish airport industry enjoys the very good prospects. In 2006 more than 15.3 million travel...
CANADIAN SMALL AIRPORT CHALLENGES
Small airports are vital to the economic vitality of the provinces and to communities across Canada. A healthy system of small airports increases the mobility of people and goods outside major centres, gives business opportunities to smaller air carriers and plays a key role in providing strong transportation infrastructure. With this in mind government has a critical role to play providing support of the infrastructure critical to small airports along with support for the delivery of public saf...