Topic: Impacts of High-speed Rail on Airlines, Airports and Regional Economies: A Survey of Recent Research
Speaker: Professor Anming Zhang, University of British Columbia
Time:10:00-12:00 am, September 18
Venue: A622, New Main Building
Abstract:
This paper first reviews studies on the impacts of air-HSR competition on airlines, focusing on the overall effects of parallel HSR services on passengers’ mode choice as well as on airlines’ flight frequency, traffic volume, fares, service quality and market power. The modal complementarity and air-HSR intermodal services, together with the network feature of airline business, are also examined. The paper then reviews theoretical and empirical findings on the impacts of HSR on airports and regional economies. Here, the main insights include: First, HSR can have a traffic redistribution effect on airport traffic; in particular, some primary hub airports with good air connectivity may gain traffic while others may lose traffic. Second, to mitigate congestion at hub airports, policy makers may consider diverting some traffic to regional airports by promoting air-HSR intermodal services. Third, as HSR may stimulate long-haul / international air traffic, its overall impact on emission reduction remains unclear. Finally, similar to the impacts on airport traffic, spatial disparity of economic activities may also rise after the introduction of HSR. In general, the disparity tends to rise between the cities with HSR and those without HSR, as the former gets better accessibility. However, among the cities with HSR services, the disparity between the large and small cities could increase or decrease depending on several factors.
Biography of the Speaker:
Anming Zhang is a Full Professor in Operations and Logistics and holds Vancouver International Airport Authority Chair Professor in Air Transportation at Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia (UBC). He served as the Head of the Operations and Logistics Division, Sauder School of Business (2003-2005), and as the Director of UBC’s Centre for Transport Studies (2003-2004). He is President-elect of the World Air Transport Research Society (ATRS) and the President-elect of Transportation and Public Utilities Group (TPUG) of American Economic Association. Dr. Zhang is the recipient of the “Yokohama Special Prize for Outstanding Young Researcher” awarded at the 7th World Conference on Transportation Research (WCTR) in Sydney, Australia in 1995, and of the “WCTR-Society Prize”, awarded to the overall best paper of the 8th WCTR in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1998. In June 2014, he won the “Best Overall Paper Prize” at the annual ITEA (International Transport Economics Association) Conference on Transportation Economics, Toulouse School of Economics, France. Currently, he is also the Vice Present (Publications) of WCTR. Dr. Zhang has published about 180 refereed journal papers and 30 book chapters in the areas of transportation, logistics, industrial organization, and Chinese economy. He has co-authored two books: Globalization and Strategic Alliances: The Case of the Airline Industry, 2000, Pergamon Press, Oxford; and Air Cargo in Mainland China and Hong Kong, 2004, Ashgate, London (Chinese editions published both in Hong Kong and Mainland China).
School of Economics and Management
