"Regionalism” of Regional Airports in the Context

of Domination by Low Cost Carriers and Global Recession

The Case of Poland

Piotr Trzepacz

piotr.trzepacz@uj.edu.pl

Institute of Geography and Spatial Management

Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland

Socio-political transformation towards the turn of eighties and nineties brought to inhabitants of Central and Eastern Europe – including Poland – the possibility of free travel beyond borders of their home countries.

However, they were able to capitalize on that possibility only after liberalization and deregulation of air

transport, which came with the accession to the European Union.

The aim of this study is to identify the level of match between the destinations network offered by Poland’s regional airports and the diverse sources of demand.

The overall geographical system of destinations available from an airport is determined by a number of factors. The key ones include:

- the history of the region served, which often determines current socio-economic trends,

especially in view of the historical status of the area, i.e. its national affiliations, - the share of economic migrants in the population of the city or region served by the

airport – the reasons for migration may determine the air destinations themselves and overall air mobility levels,

- whether the city functions as a decision-making centre with international institutions

and organisations having their headquarters there – it will have air connections with cities, regions or states actively involved in the operation of those institutions and organisations,

- the number of foreign-capital companies in a city or region – air connections may be

determined by the origin of the funds.

Fig. 1. Global air transport results (1950-2012)

Source: World aviation and the world economy, 2013, International Civil Aviation Organization, http://www.icao.int/sustainability/Pages/Facts-Figures_WorldEconomyData.aspx, data

Fig. 2. Poland’s air transport results (1981-2012)

Port lotniczy 2012 2008 2004 2000 1996

Warszawa Okęcie 42 42 48 55 58

Kraków 107 108 180 201 274

Gdańsk 115 132 237 270 283

Katowice 119 124 210 317 352

Wrocław 142 165 267 300 301

Poznań 165 176 257 291 308

Warszawa Modlin 220 - - - -

Rzeszów 260 313 399 427 392

Łódź 271 308 448 437 -

Szczecin 298 319 386 398 370

Bydgoszcz 304 326 436 424 397

Lublin 417 - - - -

Tab. 1. Polish airports in European hierarchy (1996-2012)

Source: author’s ellaboration based on data published by Civil Aviation Authority

Source: author’s ellaboration based on data published by Eurostat

Fig. 3. Importance of passenger and cargo air transport routes in EU

Source: author’s ellaboration based on data published by Eurostat

Fig. 4. LCC share in Europe (2001-2011)

Source: author on the basis of data published by www.oagaviation.com

Fig. 5. Hierarchy and passenger traffic dynamics of airports in Europe (2004-2012)

Fig. 6. Airports in Poland (2014)

Fig. 7. Airports development in Central Europe

Fig. 8. Passenger volume comparison for airports in Poland

Source: author’s ellaboration based on survay

Fig. 9. Air transport spatial market share in Poland – universal destinations (London, Dublin)

Fig. 10. Traffic structure of European airports in 2012

* Transcontinental airports accessibility (2011) - less than satysfying results for Poland and post-socialist states Fig. 11. Airport choice

factors – accessibility

Source: author’s ellaboration based on ViaMichellin (travel distance measurement), spatial aggregation: NUTS 3

Source: author’s ellaboration based on ViaMichellin (travel distance measurement), spatial aggregation: NUTS 3

* Western Poland – catchment area for Berlin Brandenburg Airport

Fig. 12. Airport choice factors – theoretical catchment areas for airports with transcontinental flights

Fig. 13. Destination network offerd from Polish airports

Tab. 2. Country ranking based on passenger check-ins for airline connections with destinations in Poland in 2004 – 2011 ( top 20 )

Fig. 14. EU countries with the highest number of passengers in 2004

Fig. 15. EU countries with the highest number of passengers in 2011

Opinion towards: Passengers

Enterpises 5 4 3 2 1 5 4 3 2 1

National destinations

26

23 14 24 13 8 4 16 34 38

UE destinations

43

18 13 8 18 28 16 18 16 22

Russian destinations

4

13 45 14 24 5 10 36 21 28

Chinese destinations

0

0 73 9 18 0 0 61 12 27

Destinations offer is satisfying – problem is the frequency

42

18 18 14 8 56 23 13 6 2

Number of airports in Poland

16

8 38 14 24 35 18 29 12 6

Number of airports is satisfying – problem is the accessibility

37

14 28 14 7 46 23 13 12 6

Tab. 3. Polish airports’ destination network according to (individual) passengers and enterprises (survey research: 1000 passengers, 200 enterprises)

5 – definitely satisfying, 4 – satisfying, 3 – no opinion/don’t know, 2 – not satisfying, 1 – definitely not satisfying

(1)

transport in Poland has changed on the basis of socio-economic transition (1989) and liberalization. Regional airports reflects new mobility patterns of Poles created by job markets openings and LCC popularity.

Spatial aspects of air transport changes:

a) reorientation in destination networks

b) liberalization of air transport has decentralized national air transportation system and gave regional centers the possibility to connect directly with global economy (global cities)

problem: extreme dependence from single carrier policy

Airports: C – central R – regional

To sum up…..

(2) Both individual passengers and represenatives of enterpises recognize international destinations network of Polish airports as satisfying Representatives of enterprises express the need to develop air transport connections with China and Russia Individual passengers are more interested in greater diversity of direct flights availability Representatives of enterprises are more interested in greater numer of flights to the greatest air transportation nodes (London, Frankfurt, New York)

To sum up…..