Air passenger demand and metropolitan economies : key predictors in the pandemic era
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Natsuko Baba (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
- Advisor
- Keith Debbage
Abstract: Given the disruptive impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on air passenger demand in the early 2020s, this paper attempts to establish if the traditional link between metropolitan economies and air passenger demand has been fundamentally altered during the pandemic era. It is hypothesized that as the employment share in tradable service sectors increases, air passenger demand will accordingly increase. Only those metropolitan areas that included airports that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) defined as air traffic hubs in 2021 were included in this analysis. Data were collected from the FAA and Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. The top ten metropolitan areas that generated the largest air passenger demand in 2021 collectively accounted for nearly half of all passenger enplanements. A stepwise analysis was performed to examine the relationship between air passenger demand and a group of predictor variables using SPSS. In the final regression model, 41.2% of the variation in air passenger demand by metropolitan area was accounted for by four predictor variables: the percent of the workforce in Information, Transportation and Warehousing, Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services or PST, and Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate or FIRE. These results appear to confirm some of the earlier research which articulated that a regional workforce with a strong tradable services sector can substantially impact air transport provision. Even during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, certain business activities on the ground, particularly tradable services, can still help to generate additional air passenger demand and enhance competitive advantage.
Air passenger demand and metropolitan economies : key predictors in the pandemic era
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Created on 5/1/2024
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Thesis
- Language: English
- Date: 2024
- Keywords
- Air Passengers, Metropolitan Areas, Pandemic, Tradable Services