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Hybrid market structure and the aviation industry
Published in Bijan Vasigh, Ken Fleming, Thomas Tacker, Introduction to Air Transport Economics, 2018
Bijan Vasigh, Ken Fleming, Thomas Tacker
The commercial aircraft manufacturing industry is largely a duopoly (an oligopoly with two firms). Airbus and Boeing compete in the 100-seat plus aircraft category and Bombardier and Embraer compete in the regional aircraft market. The market is typically divided into two product categories: narrow-body and wide-body aircraft. Narrow-body aircraft are single aisle, short-range aircraft that typically carry 100–200 passengers. Wide-body aircraft are double aisle, medium- to long-range aircraft that can carry 200–450 passengers. Consolidation in aircraft manufacturing occurred with the acquisition of McDonnell Douglas by Boeing and the exit of Lockheed from commercial aircraft manufacturing. Since commercial aircraft manufacturing is extremely capital intensive, it is unlikely that another manufacturer will enter the market. In 2007, however, China announced its intention to start making large commercial aircraft by 2020 (Bodeen 2007). The nation is expected to purchase 2,230 new aircraft before 2025. Indeed, the demand exists, but the technology proved to be a major barrier (Bodeen 2007). In an attempt to overcome this barrier, China reached an agreement with Airbus to open an A320 final assembly line (Bodeen, 2007). The goal of this venture was to gain technical knowledge that would translate into success for China’s own large aircraft program. The proof of this technological skill transfer was the launch and first flight of passenger jet, ARJ 21 in June 2016. This 90-seat jet was built entirely by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC). A further development in the Chinese aircraft manufacturing sector came after the announcement of the larger COMAC C919, a narrow-body aircraft capable of carrying up to 268 passengers. This model is touted as competition to both the A320 and the B737. COMAC reported receiving orders from 21 customers for a total of 517 aircraft, mostly from Chinese carriers but also from GE Capital Aviation Services.
Savings in per-passenger CO2 emissions using rail rather than air travel in the northeastern U.S.
Published in Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, 2021
Emissions of CO2 from aircraft are generally derived from consumption estimates for jet fuel. Fuel consumption depends upon the flight distance and profile, load, and aircraft type. The flight profile includes rate of climb, cruise altitude, and rate of descent, and is relatively stable for a given flight path between given airports. Aircraft load includes number of passengers and associated luggage as well as separate air cargo that may be included on a given flight. Aircraft type varies by airline, and for flights of 500 miles or less include either single-aisle jets (e.g., Boeing 737 and 717 series aircraft and Airbus 320 series aircraft, also referred to as short-haul or narrow-body aircraft) or regional jets (e.g., Bombardier CRJ series aircraft and Embraer aircraft). In general, regional jets have fewer than 100 seats and are used for shorter flights and for city pairs with lower traffic levels. On a per-passenger-mile basis, single-aisle jets are generally more fuel (and therefore, CO2) efficient than regional jets (Graver, Zhang, and Rutherford 2019), although choice of aircraft to a given route depends upon the number of passengers traveling between city pairs and airport configuration, among factors other than emissions. Baumeister (2017) also noted discrepancies between different calculators in both methodology and results and chose to use flight-specific data for load factors, passenger-to-freight factors, and supplied seats to develop fuel consumption and CO2 emission estimates for those flights. While this approach is presumably more accurate for a given flight, it is questionable whether it is more accurate for the average emissions over all flights on a given route.
The effects of seat width, load factor, and passenger demographics on airline passenger accommodation
Published in Ergonomics, 2019
Elizabeth L. Miller, Samuel M. Lapp, Matthew B. Parkinson
The study in this paper considers a plane with a row layout and 24 rows. This is typical of the economy class of narrow-body aircraft such as the Boeing 737 or Airbus A320. For the purpose of this paper, only the Economy Class of the plane is considered. Different dimensions and seat layouts for Business and First Class could be considered separately.