Regional air services have become one of the fastest growing sectors of the aviation industry in recent years. In a deregulated commercial environment, small aircraft provide the flexibility to develop new routes or to improve the provision of services on existing routes. With increasing congestion and capacity constraints at many major airports in Europe, the secondary airports also have an opportunity to capture a greater share of demand. This paper examines the current trends and issues in development of services using small aircraft (less than about 100 seats) within Europe. Successful strategies are identified but despite the generally buoyant picture, there remains a high 'churn' rate amongst thinly trafficked routes and small new-entrant carriers. The evolution of the international air network within Europe is traced and potential new routes identified with reference to a simple gravity model of demand. The different applications of regional jets are then considered; for example to add completely new sectors, to increase the frequency on existing routes by supplementing or substituting large jet aircraft or to improve the speed and quality of service by replacing turbo-prop aircraft. Comparisons are made of the network developments at selected major hubs and analysis is also conducted into the creation of regional hubs, dependent on small aircraft, such as Clermont Ferrand, Luxembourg and Birmingham. Although domestic airline networks appear to be relatively mature in many European countries, there are opportunities for expansion here also. The greater competition with surface modes means that a large potential market exists. A number of small airports have been developed near city centres in Europe, such as London City, Belfast City, Florence, Stockholm Bromma and Mönchengladbach. These typically necessitate the use of small, high performance aircraft due to short runways and to minimise noise impact on the neighbouring urban areas. This does however provide the regional airlines with a unique niche that the major carriers cannot easily attack. Finally, consideration is given to methods for expanding leisure travel from regional airports. There are certain 'premium' holiday destinations to which airlines can deploy regional aircraft at weekends, when they would otherwise be idle. Links via hubs provide the ability for passengers to access the global networks, while airports for whom the market does not provide a sufficient service can go a step further and charter their own flights, a strategy adopted at Norwich.
Abstract