A segmentation analysis and segments profile of budget air travelers

Many Spanish destinations are now considering low cost airlines (LCA) important for attracting tourists. However, there is little evidence on the characteristics travelers using low cost airlines and their flight preferences. Typical segmentation of air travelers are business versus leisure travelers and business versus tourist fares. The aim of this paper is to obtain a deeper understanding of the demand of LCA through a segmentation analysis, based on 808 foreign travelers who used Girona airport, that focuses on low cost travelers’ valuations of different flight attributes and trip related characteristics

Testing of stair climbing point-of-choice prompts in Barcelona at an outdoor set of stairs and scalators on the Montjuïc site

Regular stair climbing has well-documented health dividends, such as increased fitness and strength, weight loss and reduced body fat, improved lipid profiles and reduced risk of osteoporosis. The general absence of barriers to participation makes stair climbing an ideal physical activity (PA) for health promotion. Studies in the US and the UK have consistently shown that interventions to increase the accumulation of lifestyle PA by climbing stairs rather than using the escalators are effective. However, there are no previous in Catalonia. This project tested one message for their ability to prompt travelers on the Montjuïc site to choose the stairs rather than the escalator when climbing up the Monjuïc hill. One standard message, " Take the stairs! 7 minutes of stair climbing a day protects your heart" provided a comparison with previous research done in the UK. Translated into Catalan and Spanish, it was presented on a poster positioned at the point of choice between the stairs and the escalator. The study used a quasi-experimental, interrupted time series design. Travelers, during several and specific hours on two days of the week, were coded for stair or escalator use, gender, age, ethnic status, presence of accompanying children or bags by one observer. Overall, the intervention resulted in a 81% increase in stair climbing. In the follow-up period without messages, stair climbing dropped out to baseline levels. This preliminary study showed a significant effect on stair use. However, caution is needed since results are based on a small sample and, only a low percentage of the sample took the stairs at baseline or the intervention phase . Future research on stair use in Catalonia should focus on using bigger samples, different sites (metro stations, airports, shopping centers, etc) , different messages and techniques to promote stair climbing.

La formació d'una política exterior per a l'Índia. La visita de Nehru a l'Espanya republicana durant la Guerra Civil

L'objectiu ha estat posar en relació dues realitats que fins al moment havien estat considerades completament alienes, com són l’Índia i Espanya. La recerca de fonts per a les relacions bilaterals de tot tipus es va iniciar al segle XIX. A partir d’aquest moment apareixen tres camps fonamentals on aprofundir. D’una banda tenim les relacions diplomàtiques i la seva vessant política a partir del segle XX. El desenvolupament de representacions consulars té a veure amb el creixement de l’activitat econòmica amb l’Índia britànica, especialment en el camp del proveïment de primeres matèries (cotó i jute). En aquest sentit, la recuperació de les relacions econòmiques va ser clau per al posterior mutu reconeixement diplomàtic el 1957 quan l’Índia ja era un estat independent. Entre mig queden anys de malvolença degut a la vinculació de Nehru amb el govern republicà durant la Guerra Civil i la posició de l’Índia en el cas d’Espanya a l’ONU. Un altre camp d’interès per a les relacions bilaterals es centra en la missió de Bombay que a partir de 1920 fou administrada per jesuïtes catalans, valencians i aragonesos. Finalment, un seguiment de la premsa i la intel•lectualitat espanyola mostra com l’Índia es va convertir a partir de 1920 en un nou focus d’interès informatiu i pel món acadèmic, com no ho havia estat fins llavors. Aquest descobriment de l’Índia per part de viatgers, artistes i periodistes obra una nova via d’intercanvi que es veurà trucada per la Guerra Civil i el posterior establiment d’un règim que destruí el teixit intel•lectual del país.

Congested hubs

Hub congestion is a major problem and a relevant policy issue because it causes delays and many organizational problems at airports that end up implying unpleasant consequences both for air travelers and airlines. In a competitive framework in which carriers choose aircraft size, this paper suggests that airlines schedule too many flights using overly small aircraft, which constitutes a major contributor to congestion. Two- part congestion tolls, accounting for the congestion imposed on other carriers and the congestion imposed on all passengers, are needed to recover e¢ ciency. Finally, we analyze the validity of the results by studying the effects of network size, airport capacity, competition in layover time, and the formation of airline alliances. Keywords: congestion; hub-and-spoke networks; overprovision of frequency; con- gestion internalization; congestion tolls JEL Classiffication Numbers: L13; L2; L93

Air services on thin routes: Regional versus low-cost airlines

An examination of the impact in the US and EU markets of two major innovations in the provision of air services on thin routes - regional jet technology and the low-cost business model - reveals significant differences. In the US, regional airlines monopolize a high proportion of thin routes, whereas low-cost carriers are dominant on these routes in Europe. Our results have different implications for business and leisure travelers, given that regional services provide a higher frequency of flights (at the expense of higher fares), while low-cost services offer lower fares (at the expense of lower flight frequencies). Keywords: air transportation; regional jet technology; low-cost business model; thin markets. JEL Classification Numbers: L13; L2; L93.

Anàlisi, disseny i implementació d'una aplicació fent servir l'arquitectura J2EE

L'objectiu general és l'anàlisi, el disseny i la implementació d'una 'Guia del viatger'. Es pretén separar clarament la presentació, la lògica de negoci i l'accés a les dades. Concretament, la presentació es preveu implementar amb la combinació de Servlets i JSP's, mentre que la lògica de negoci i la capa de dades amb Enterprise Java Beans (EJB's)

Transportation choices and the value of statistical life

This paper exploits an unusual transportation setting to estimate the value of a statistical life(VSL). We estimate the trade-offs individuals are willing to make between mortality risk andcost as they travel to and from the international airport in Sierra Leone (which is separated fromthe capital Freetown by a body of water). Travelers choose from among multiple transportoptions ? namely, ferry, helicopter, hovercraft, and water taxi. The setting and original datasetallow us to address some typical omitted variable concerns in order to generate some of the firstrevealed preference VSL estimates from Africa. The data also allows us to compare VSLestimates for travelers from 56 countries, including 20 African and 36 non-African countries, allfacing the same choice situation. The average VSL estimate for African travelers in the sample isUS$577,000 compared to US$924,000 for non-Africans. Individual characteristics, particularlyjob earnings, can largely account for the difference between Africans and non-Africans; Africansin the sample typically earn somewhat less. There is little evidence that individual VSL estimatesare driven by a lack of information, predicted life expectancy, or cultural norms around risktakingor fatalism. The data implies an income elasticity of the VSL of 1.77. These revealedpreference VSL estimates from a developing country fill an important gap in the existingliterature, and can be used for a variety of public policy purposes, including in current debateswithin Sierra Leone regarding the desirability of constructing new transportation infrastructure.

Viatjant a Grècia en cerca de l'ideal hel·lènic

Aquest és un article de síntesi que analitza sobretot l'anomenat Grand Tour i la cerca de l'ideal hel·lenic per part de tot un llarg seguit de personatges. Ells i els seus llibres i textos, anomenats aquí i dels quals se'n recullen nombrosos passatges, han estat veritablement significatius en la història del redescobriment europeu de Grècia: George Wheler, Jacob Spon, marquès de Nointel, James Stuart, Nicholas Revett, Robert Wood, Johann Joachim Winckelmann, Antiquities of Athens, Antiquities of Ionia, Richard Chandler, Lord Elgin, Lord Byron, Konstantinos P. Kavafis, etc.

Viajando a Grecia en busca del ideal helénico

Este es un artículo de síntesis que analiza sobre todo el llamado Grand Tour y la búsqueda del ideal helénico por parte de una larga serie de personajes. Ellos y sus libros y textos, ciados aquí y de los cuales se recogen numerosos pasajes, han sido verdaderamente significativos en la historia del redescubrimiento europeo de Grecia: George Wheler, Jacob Spon, marquès de Nointel, James Stuart, Nicholas Revett, Robert Wood, Johann Joachim Winckelmann, Antiquities of Athens, Antiquities of Ionia, Richard Chandler, Lord Elgin, Lord Byron, Konstantinos P. Kavafis, etc.

Cambio de hábitos y transformaciones territoriales en los corredores de alta velocidad ferroviaria. Resultados de una encuesta de viajeros en la línea Madrid-Barcelona

El tren de alta velocidad (TAV) está viviendo un auge importante en España. Ello implica una transformación territorial como resultado de una modificación del comportamiento de los viajeros debido a una mejora en el transporte ferroviario interurbano. En este contexto hay un elemento que ha obtenido una atención insuficiente. Se trata del acceso a la estación como parte fundamental del viaje puerta-a-puerta. Para hacer frente a la carencia de datos estadísticos sobre este aspecto, hemos realizado una encuesta a los viajeros de alta velocidad en la línea Madrid – Barcelona, que ayuda responder a la pregunta: ¿Cómo llega el viajero a la estación? Es imprescindible conocer este aspecto para planificar y realizar actuaciones de mejora intermodal adecuadas. Los resultados muestran que el acceso en vehículo privado es preponderante y que existe la necesidad de ofrecer más alternativas atractivas para acceder a las estaciones. Se concluye además que las estaciones centrales son preferibles, ya que generan una movilidad más sostenible.

Air services on thin routes : Regional versus low-cost airlines

An examination of the impact in the US and EU markets of two major innovations in the provision of air services on thin routes - regional jet technology and the low-cost business model - reveals significant differences. In the US, regional airlines monopolize a high proportion of thin routes, whereas low-cost carriers are dominant on these routes in Europe. Our results have different implications for business and leisure travelers, given that regional services provide a higher frequency of flights (at the expense of higher fares), while low-cost services offer lower fares (at the expense of lower flight frequencies).

Platform pricing and consumer foresight: The case of airports

Airports have become platforms that derive revenues from both aeronautical and commercial activities. The demand for these services is characterized by a one-way complementarity in that only air travelers can purchase retail goods at the airport terminals. We analyze a model of optimal airport behavior in which this one-way complementarity is subject to consumer foresight, i.e., consumers may not anticipate in full the ex post retail surplus when purchasing a flight ticket. An airport sets landing fees, and, in addition, also chooses the retail market structure by selecting the number of retail concessions to be awarded. We find that, with perfectly myopic consumers, the airport chooses to attract more passengers via low landing fees, and also sets the minimum possible number of retailers in order to increase the concessions’ revenues, from which it obtains the largest share of profits. However, even a very small amount of anticipation of the consumer surplus from retail activities changes significantly the airport’s choices: the optimal airport policy is dependent on the degree of differentiation in the retail market. When consumers instead have perfect foresight, the airport establishes a very competitive retail market, where consumers enjoy a large surplus. This attracts passengers and it is exploited by the airport by charging higher landing fees, which then constitute the largest share of its profits. Overall, the airport’s profits are maximal when consumers have perfect foresight. Keywords: two-sided markets, platform pricing, one-way demand complementarity, consumer foresight. JEL classification: L1, L2, L93.