We examine two factors that might explain the extent of air traffic delays in the United States: network benefits due to hubbing and congestion externalities. Airline hubs enable passengers to cross-connect to many destinations, thus creating network benefits that increase in the number of...

In antitrust law, a hub-and-spoke conspiracy is a cartel in which a firm (the “hub”) organizes collusion (the “rim of the wheel” or the “rim”) among upstream or downstream firms (the “spokes”) through vertical restraints. Such a conspiracy may be illegal per se under antitrust...

This paper provides the first analysis of the trade-off between convenient flight connections and airport congestion. A continuous spatial model illustrates this trade-off in a framework where a small gap between flight operating times raises congestion while also shortening a connecting...