Kurt Fuellhart

Inter-metropolitan airport substitution by consumers in an asymmetrical airfare environment: Harrisburg, Philadelphia and Baltimore

Abstract Airfares vary significantly over space, and can even vary substantially between airports in relatively close proximity with one another. With the spread of various Web tools, consumers are armed with more information than ever to assess fare and service differences between competing airlines and competing airports. This leads to the possibility of airport substitution for particular routes. Linear regression models are developed that suggest, despite the 70–90 mile distance, that passenger substitution may be occurring from Harrisburg and Philadelphia to Baltimore based as a result of differential fares, low-fare service, and other factors.

Patterns of US air transport across the economic unevenness of 2003-2013

ABSTRACT This map summarizes the relative change in activity at 379 airports during the tumultuous economic period that lasted from 2003 to 2013 in the conterminous USA. Rather than treating airports only as individual nodes, the work identifies relative regional spatial change in airport activity based upon the combination of the percentage changes in three factors: departures, passenger levels, and available seats. The geographic results, calculated by kriging, show that the outcome over the period is not spatially uniform. In particular, the map shows that parts of the Rust Belt, Appalachia, and the Intermountain West fared relatively worse while the plains and coasts did somewhat better. The analysis expresses the fact that while footloose in the short-run, long-term adjustments in the airline industry, like those experienced across 2003–2013, did so in a spatially coherent way.

Economic Efficiency of Residential Water Conservation Programs in a Pennsylvania Public Water Utility

This study examines the economic efficiency of implementing a residential water conservation program in a small Pennsylvania public water utility. Local demographic data and results from similar programs elsewhere were used to estimate potential water conservation for three programs: rebates for low-flow toilets, rebates for high-efficiency washing machines, and in-home water audits. Future water supply and wastewater treatment demand were estimated. The net present value of constructing, operating, and maintaining new capacity infrastructure (water supply, water storage tanks, and wastewater treatment plant capacity), as well as the costs of the conservation programs, was calculated for a range of scenarios that included future demand growth, construction costs, interest rates, and levels of participation in the conservation programs. Results indicate that investing in residential water conservation would be cost-effective for a small number of scenarios that generally combine higher growth rates, higher interest rates, higher construction costs, and relatively modest public participation in conservation. The results are affected by the timing of necessary supply-side investments relative to the most significant water conservation gains, the relatively inexpensive local water supply costs, and the relatively high local wastewater treatment costs. Water conservation might be cost-effective for a wider range of conditions in communities facing scarce and expensive water supply options.

Change in the role of cities in China’s air transport 2005–2015

ABSTRACT Air transport has been expanding rapidly in China over the past decade. That growth corresponded with economic development as well as liberalization in the regulations surrounding airline operations and city and provincial responsibilities for air transport infrastructure. This paper analyses the way the airline industry responded to those changes by identifying the rank of 37 cities on a series of measures of airline operations in 2005 and 2015. Results show that the ranks of the seven leading cities remain unchanged, and only a small change has been recorded on each of the measures at other cities over this time period. The results suggest that there is a level of inertia in the overall geography of China’s air transport. Closer attention to the activity of the airlines, with particular attention to small and large airlines, as well as those within corporate groups will be an important direction in future research.