Liberalization of Air Transport Services and Passenger Traffic
WTO Staff Working Paper ERSD-2008-06
31 Pages Posted: 14 Dec 2008 Last revised: 18 Feb 2009
Date Written: December 2008
Abstract
Using a gravity-type model to explain bilateral passenger traffic, this paper estimates the impact of liberalizing air transport services on air passenger flows for a sample of 184 countries. We find robust evidence of a positive and significant relationship between the volumes of traffic and the degree of liberalization of the aviation market. An increase in the degree of liberalization from the 25th percentile to the 75th percentile increases traffic volumes between countries linked by a direct air service by approximately 30 per cent. In particular, the removal of restrictions on the determination of prices and capacity, cabotage rights and the possibility for airlines other than the flag carrier of the foreign country to operate a service are found to be the most traffic-enhancing provisions of air service agreements. The results are robust to the use of different measures of the degree of liberalization as well as the use of different estimation techniques.
Keywords: Bilateral air service agreements, air transport, air service trade liberalization, gravity model, passenger traffic, open skies agreements
JEL Classification: F15, L93
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
The Institutional Determinants of Bilateral Trade Patterns
By Henri L. F. De Groot, Gert-jan Linders, ...
-
Cultural and Institutional Determinants of Bilateral Trade Flows
By Gert-jan Linders, Arjen Hl Slangen, ...
-
Trade Implies Law: The Power of the Weak
By James E. Anderson and Leslie Young
-
The Impact of Mode 4 Liberalization on Bilateral Trade Flows
By Marion Jansen and Roberta Piermartini
-
The Impact of Mode 4 Liberalization on Bilateral Trade Flows
By Marion Jansen and Roberta Piermartini
-
Accession to the WTO and EU Enlargement: What Potential for Trade Increase?