Reviews for Introduction to Airline Economics - William E. O'Connor - Hardcover - 4th ed

The average rating for Introduction to Airline Economics - William E. O'Connor - Hardcover - 4th ed based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-12-22 00:00:00 Gert Claasen This is mostly a qualitative view of the costs and impacts associated with airline business. The book begins with the history of traffic and rate regulation. Entry and Exit discusses market considerations and how airlines make high level business operating decisions. An example is the term hub-and-spoke which is a main airline hub and various branches of routes. Capital investment is determined based on these route decisions. Routes are based on capacity and competition. Costs are based off this basic strategy. Labor costs account for nearly 30% of the total operating costs, based on whether many are unionized, and I find it interesting that airlines have purposely gone bankrupt to prove a point and remove the union. Bilateral agreements can determine whether a route will even be possible. The US being the most stringent. The Five Freedoms help to divide the certain rights to fly over the country. The Costs of Airline Service breaks down the different associated costs into budget categories. Labor and fuel account for nearly half. Demand for airline service chapter covers those areas that drive the management of scheduling flights. What’s interesting is the level of detail that goes into predicting the variability of the elasticity if demand. Example is the level of income in a city area or country. Poor spend more on basics like food and less on luxury or travel. Economic growth may lead to more passengers. Other methods to estimate the travel demand for example are polling passengers, the type of city, distance between destinations, and previous data or price experiments. What will be interesting to research is the effect of income inequality and the potential downturn in passengers due to this increasing problem in America. Less passengers mean less revenue for domestic airlines. Over booking is described as the S curve theory where the number of passengers flying is plotted against the share in seats. It doesn’t show a graph example but the idea is that airlines will overbook to control a market space or percentage for that location. But the theory appears to be not conclusive and there are arguments on both sides of whether it’s a bad or good reaction to the market. This book is somewhat hilariously dated; it talks about the future of people with home computers being able to access travel agent information and actually book a ticket themselves! Wow! Hahaha The airline rates chapter brings together the cost and demand chapters to determine the rates airlines charge for their product service. The value of service is higher due to long trips, business travelers who cannot wait out a price, and expensive cargo. These are used to determine the rates factoring in operating costs and value. Revenue management is important to make sure yield is high (revenue per passenger mile) and load capacity is high (filling up the aircraft with no empty seats). This is tough when competitors are lowering prices. There are 50k fare changes a day. Rates used to be regulated but have since been deregulated, but the DOT holds the power to intervene in extreme circimstances. Benefit of the doubt goes to the airline. Note also that IATA had the power to set standard rates but only provide recommendations nowadays. The Air Cargo chapter starts with a rundown of the types of cargo and aircraft that play into the amount of capital required. Terminal cargo processing costs are five times higher than standard carrier costs. Much time is spent discussing the various different types of cargo support surrounding the operation. Not very interesting, but the section on competition for air freight vs ground and sea are broken down. But I suppose one must understand the product demographics to fully understand air cargo costs. Basic economics are at play here in that the changing value of a currency will impact the importing and exporting of goods; steady or volatile. No numbers are discussed, but the considerations for all costs are laid out. For example consider the time limited good’s weight and size to determine which mode of transport is desired. Not an extreme amount of detail but most cost variables are discussed. Current problem areas are touched on: inflation, multilateral cargo agreements, trade agreemenets, fuel policy, hazardous cargo and alliances. The last chapter on current problems brings to light the convergence of airline and airport economics. Airlines do not control airport operations or costs. They have little power in that regard as they do not own the airport unlike bus companies. Airports are state funded and operated, which forces airlines to operate around policy, aging ATC technology and capacity issues. The book ends summarizing the many questions of the future of airline economics. As there are many variables that impact the amount of cost involved to operate an airline business, they are heavily influenced by social and political change. The airline business will experience continual variability. This was definitely an introduction only as most of the topics were qualitative with no supporting data, but very informative that leaves open ended questions to get you started. For more detail on running a profitable airline I would read again The Airline Business by Rigas Doganis.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-08-06 00:00:00 Shelley Biscaino This book is a collection of spells from a variety of sources. The most basic thing that this book does for the reader is That it gives a wide variety of spells from ancient sources and a diverse variety from different disciplines. This book should be a welcome addition to any person who is interested in magic regardless of the level Of your understanding of magic. The main drawback to this book is the indexing. The indexing leaves a lot to be desired. For example the book contains a great deal of basic formulas for conditioning oils throughout. However in the section entitled formularies, it only contains a Fraction of the recipes dispersed throughout the book. Searching the index for Orioles is very tedious to say the least. Not of this however detracts from the great goodness that this book provides in the numerous battles that are contained within the book. This book is good for beginners as well as the experienced.