"Regionalism of Regional Airports in the Context of Domination by Low Cost Carriers and Global Recession The Case of Poland

Transcription

1 "Regionalism of Regional Airports in the Context of Domination by Low Cost Carriers and Global Recession The Case of Poland Piotr Trzepacz Institute of Geography and Spatial Management Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland

2 Socio-political transformation towards the turn of eighties and nineties brought to inhabitants of Central and Eastern Europe including Poland the possibility of free travel beyond borders of their home countries. However, they were able to capitalize on that possibility only after liberalization and deregulation of air transport, which came with the accession to the European Union. The aim of this study is to identify the level of match between the destinations network offered by Poland s regional airports and the diverse sources of demand.

3 The overall geographical system of destinations available from an airport is determined by a number of factors. The key ones include: - the history of the region served, which often determines current socio-economic trends, especially in view of the historical status of the area, i.e. its national affiliations, - the share of economic migrants in the population of the city or region served by the airport the reasons for migration may determine the air destinations themselves and overall air mobility levels, - whether the city functions as a decision-making centre with international institutions and organisations having their headquarters there it will have air connections with cities, regions or states actively involved in the operation of those institutions and organisations, - the number of foreign-capital companies in a city or region air connections may be determined by the origin of the funds.

4 Fig. 1. Global air transport results ( ) Source: World aviation and the world economy, 2013, International Civil Aviation Organization, data

5 Fig. 2. Poland s air transport results ( ) Tab. 1. Polish airports in European hierarchy ( ) Port lotniczy Warszawa Okęcie Kraków Gdańsk Katowice Wrocław Poznań Warszawa Modlin Rzeszów Łódź Szczecin Bydgoszcz Lublin Source: author s ellaboration based on data published by Eurostat Source: author s ellaboration based on data published by Civil Aviation Authority

6 Fig. 3. Importance of passenger and cargo air transport routes in EU Source: author s ellaboration based on data published by Eurostat

7 Fig. 4. LCC share in Europe ( ) Source: author on the basis of data published by

8 Fig. 5. Hierarchy and passenger traffic dynamics of airports in Europe ( )

9 Fig. 6. Airports in Poland (2014) Fig. 7. Airports development in Central Europe

10 Fig. 8. Passenger volume comparison for airports in Poland

11 Fig. 9. Air transport spatial market share in Poland universal destinations (London, Dublin) Source: author s ellaboration based on survay

12 Fig. 10. Traffic structure of European airports in 2012

13 Fig. 11. Airport choice factors accessibility * Transcontinental airports accessibility (2011) - less than satysfying results for Poland and post-socialist states Source: author s ellaboration based on ViaMichellin (travel distance measurement), spatial aggregation: NUTS 3

14 Fig. 12. Airport choice factors theoretical catchment areas for airports with transcontinental flights * Western Poland catchment area for Berlin Brandenbur g Airport Source: author s ellaboration based on ViaMichellin (travel distance measurement), spatial aggregation: NUTS 3

15 Fig. 13. Destination network offerd from Polish airports

16 Tab. 2. Country ranking based on passenger check-ins for airline connections with destinations in Poland in ( top 20 )

17 Fig. 14. EU countries with the highest number of passengers in 2004

18 Fig. 15. EU countries with the highest number of passengers in 2011

19 Tab. 3. Polish airports destination network according to (individual) passengers and enterprises (survey research: 1000 passengers, 200 enterprises) Opinion towards: Passengers Enterpises National destinations UE destinations Russian destinations Chinese destinations Destinations offer is satisfying problem is the frequency Number of airports in Poland Number of airports is satisfying problem is the accessibility definitely satisfying, 4 satisfying, 3 no opinion/don t know, 2 not satisfying, 1 definitely not satisfying

20 To sum up.. (1) transport in Poland has changed on the basis of socio-economic transition (1989) and liberalization. Regional airports reflects new mobility patterns of Poles created by job markets openings and LCC popularity. Spatial aspects of air transport changes: a) reorientation in destination networks b) liberalization of air transport has decentralized national air transportation system and gave regional centers the possibility to connect directly with global economy (global cities) Airports: C central R regional problem: extreme dependence from single carrier policy

21 To sum up.. (2) Both individual passengers and represenatives of enterpises recognize international destinations network of Polish airports as satisfying Representatives of enterprises express the need to develop air transport connections with China and Russia Individual passengers are more interested in greater diversity of direct flights availability Representatives of enterprises are more interested in greater numer of flights to the greatest air transportation nodes (London, Frankfurt, New York)