Comparative study of hub airports in Europe : ticket prices, travel time and rescheduling costs

This paper investigates the strategic position of four European airports in the aviation network by means of a generalised cost function. We compare the performance of the hub airports London, Paris, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam. Our analysis entails flights from smaller European airports via these hubs to intercontinental destinations and vice versa. The comparative positions of the cities in the airport network is determined by a generalised cost function in which travel cost, travel time and rescheduling time (as a function of the frequency of the service) are included. An important feature of our comparative study is that various market segments are identified (business, tourists). We find that the positions of the hub airports for the business class passengers differ from those for economy class passengers. Using high-speed rail as an alternative for the European part of the trip is only attractive for a rather restricted segment of the market.