Airline Microeconomics

Book excerpt: This book presents readers with a technical tool-kit to understand the economics of airlines. It starts by covering the key language and glossary of the air travel business, which is necessary for graduates or first-time employees in aviation to understand the content of conversations, meetings, presentations and internal aviation communications. It then breaks down the complexity of the demand side of the air travel business. The book then analyses revenue over two distinct time horizons, specifically the short and medium runs, recognising the fact that airlines operate to a fixed number of seats over a short horizon because of the way that they schedule services in advance of departure. By combining revenue and costs, the book then analyses airline profit, with a focus on the short run and medium run decision variables that maximise airline profit. The remainder of the book analyses various important topics in air transport economics, including competition in airline markets, key rules, regulations and taxes that affect the return on capital in aviation, the way that airlines form relationships, and the economics of the market for oil and jet fuel, among others.