Charlotte Douglas International Airport - Case Study Example

Airport: Charlotte Douglas International Airport Introduction Globalization is one of the main trends of development of the modern world. The world has become more integrated with a single market, political and cultural environment. There are a lot of reasons for such situation. Among them the following ones may be pointed out: economic growth and internationalization, development of transport infrastructure, technological development, cultural assimilation, etc. The first reason that was named is development of transport infrastructure. This factor has made the world united and close, since it has become easier to travel. Any person may visit any country in the world and meet local people and culture. That is why we can say that this particular factor is probably the most important in the process of globalization. Its role just cannot be overestimated. Air transport is the most fast and progressive in the whole global transport industry. It is important to say a few words about the overall trends in development of air transport industry. Internationalization of markets and nature of competition, formation of global economic space have transformed air transport in a key factor in the development of the modern global economy. Structure and mechanism of a market economy were the fundamental changes in a nature of air industry that are due to scientific and technical progress, the high concentration of production and capital, the emergence of transnational corporations. As a result, new forms and methods of competition, improved control systems have emerged, expansion and complication of relations between supply and demand have occurred. Civil aviation is the most expensive form of transportation. It explains the fact that countries with high economic development contributes the most to the development of the world’s civil aviation. Consequently, the global air transport is characterized by a high concentration of regional traffic. Thus, about 38% of total passenger traffic on international and domestic scheduled routes was made by airlines in North America in 2011. Asia and Pacific accounted for 25% of all the flights, European Airlines - 26%, Latin America and the Caribbean - 3%, Middle East Airlines - 6% and airlines of Africa - 2%. According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), whose members account for 188 countries, biennium average annual growth rate of world passenger traffic on scheduled flights was 0.4% and global turnover - 5.4% during 1998-2009. The total volume of freight in 2009 relative to 2008 decreased by 4.3%, the volume of passenger traffic also reduced, but not as rapidly as cargo, reducing passenger traffic amounted to almost 1%. State of the global airline industry in 2008-2009 was just terrible. With the overall economic slowdown demand on air travel reduced significantly. However, the aviation industry began to recover its position in 2010. Growth of passenger transport, cargo and mail was observed in 2011. According to the two most prestigious international aviation organizations - the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and International Air Transport Association (IATA) - the global aviation industry in 2009 experienced the most significant decline since the Second World War. The world market for air transport will receive a gross net profit of 8.9 billion USD in 2012. USA. At the same time, aviation market players’ profit fell to $ 5.3 billion in 2011. Much of the airline now operates under very low profitability. At the same time, the volume of air flights in the world will increase by an average of 11%, and the total number of passengers carried by about 7%. Therefore, we can say that the industry has positive perspectives. It is a good sign not only for the airlines, manufacturers of aircrafts, but also for airports. Analysis of the dynamics and structure of the international air transportation market has shown steady growth in passenger of low-budget airlines, which reached almost 50% of the traffic volumes of traditional carriers. At the same time, the number of passengers carried by traditional airlines annually decreases, which suggests that the consumer value of air transport services to low-cost carriers better meet the requirements of the different segments of passengers, especially in the conditions of economic downturn. The following conclusions about the overall development of the global air transport industry can be made after the conducted analysis: a) most likely average rate of global economic growth will be 2.5% per year (in real terms); b) moderate growth in world’s trade in the "likeliest medium pace" of about 3.0% per year; c) a decline of 0.5% per year of average profit rate of passenger traffic. Background As it has been already mentioned the United States of America is among the global leaders in the development of air transport industry. In the US, there are nearly 20,000 airports. These include public airports that serve commercial airlines as well as airports that are public but do not serve commercial airlines. There are also airports that are "heliports", gliderports, and also some that are private airports. Despite the global financial crisis and its consequences, the industry still develops and the number of airports and passengers is constantly growing. The task of this research paper is to analyze the trends in development and growth of size of one of the American airports. The following airport has been chosen for analysis - Charlotte Douglas International Airport. To begin with some background information about this airport should be provided. Charlotte Douglas International Airport is an international airport located in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was founded in 1935 and has become one of the largest airports of the country since then. It is currently US Airways’ largest hub with 175 destinations. According to the different ratings, this airport was 6th busiest in the world, taking into account passenger traffic. Some additional information about this airport can be got from the following quote. “Charlotte Douglas received the prestigious Eagle Award in 2010 from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) for “Best Airport.” It is considered the most distinguished of awards in the aviation industry. Charlotte Douglas was recognized for its quality service and economical value to airline customers” (Charlotte Douglas International Airport Official Website).  Conceptual model As it has been already mentioned the airport is one of the busiest not only in the country, but in the whole world. Its history accounts for almost 80 years. It has demonstrated stable trend of growth for this period. That is why it may be really interesting and useful to analyze those trends, using the different econometric instruments and statistical models. In fact, we are talking about analysis of dynamics. That is why some theoretical concepts should be provided. Social phenomena are continuously changing. Analysis of socio-economic development is one of the important tasks of statistics. Dynamic range is a sequence of numbers that characterize the change of a socio-economic phenomenon. Elements of time series is chronological list of dates (points) or time intervals and specific meanings relevant statistical indicators, called levels series. In studying the dynamics not only numeric levels, are important but also their sequence. Typically, the time intervals between the levels are the same. Depending on the statistical nature of the index-level time series distinguish primary and derivatives series of absolute, average and relative values. On the basis of dynamic time series are divided into interval and moment. The level of the moment series captures the state of the phenomenon at a particular time. In the interval some level is aggregated result of the process and depends on the time interval duration. Socio-economic processes are dynamic, that are constant changes in the level of dynamic range. Along with their dynamism inherent inertia: mechanism of stored events and character development. With substantial inertia process and constant set of conditions for its development rightly expect in the future, the properties and character development that were discovered in the past. In studying the patterns of socio-economic development statistics solves a number of problems: measures the intensity dynamics, identifies and describes trends assesses structural changes, sustainability, and vibrations series, reveals the factors that cause change. A prerequisite for the analysis of any time series is comparable statistics that shape it. Incomparability of data can be made conditional upon various factors: 1. Changes in accounting methods and calculation of indicators, including the use of different units for measurement; 2. Changes in the structure of population and territorial changes; 3. Different critical moments registration data or duration periods, which include level; 4. Change in prices for the cost parameters. Comparability of data is provided in the stages of harvesting and processing. Use special techniques of summaries to view comparable time series. Empirical data After defining the conceptual model, it is important to define the possible sources of empirical data. The data can be got from the different sources. Among them the following ones may be pointed out: information of the airport, industry’ data and researches, economic researches, opinions of experts, financial statements, etc. the following two websites are going to be very important sources of required data: http://www.transtats.bts.gov/ and http://www.faa.gov/. Therefore, the main statistics about performance of the airport is provided in the following tables. Major Carriers Serving This Airport US Airways Inc. 59.4% Mesa Airlines Inc. 18.5% Expressjet Airlines Inc. 4.5% American Eagle Airlines Inc. 4.2% AirTran Airways Corporation 3.0% Northwest Airlines Inc. 2.2% United Air Lines Inc. 1.9% Comair Inc. 1.9% Delta Air Lines Inc. 1.5% American Airlines Inc. 1.5% The most popular destinations of the airport under consideration are the following. Most Popular Destinations Chicago Ohare Intl (ORD) 5.5% La Guardia (LGA) 4.9% Newark Liberty Intl (EWR) 4.0% Hartsfield - Jackson Atlanta Intl (ATL) 4.0% Baltimore/washington Intl Thurgood Marshal (BWI) 3.3% George Bush Intercontinental/houston (IAH) 3.2% Dallas/fort Worth Intl (DFW) 3.0% Washington Dulles Intl (IAD) 3.0% Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW) 2.9% Philadelphia Intl (PHL) 2.9% The most possible aircraft of this airport can be defined from the following table. Most Popular Aircraft N904FJ 0.6% N925FJ 0.6% N920FJ 0.6% N911FJ 0.6% N921FJ 0.6% N928LR 0.6% N922FJ 0.6% N914FJ 0.6% N591US 0.5% N926LR 0.5% As it has been already mentioned, the main task of this research paper is to study the trends in the size of the airport. In our opinion, the best way to do it is to analyze the dynamics in the number of flights and passengers. (CLT) Charlotte Douglas International Airport had 34,536,666 passengers use its terminals in 2009, making CLT the #24 busiest airport in the world during 2009. As it has been already mentioned, the airport under consideration is usually on top of the different rankings, according to the number of passengers. One of such rankings is provided in the table below. Rank Airport Country Passengers 2009 Passengers 2010 1 Atlanta ATL, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta USA 88,032,086 89,331,622 2 Beijing PEK, Beijing Capital China 65,372,012 73,948,113 3 Chicago ORD, O’Hare USA 64,158,343 66,774,738 4 London LHR, Heathrow Airport UK 66,037,578 65,884,143 5 Tokyo HND, Tokyo (Haneda Airport) Japan 61,903,656 64,211,074 6 Los Angeles LAX, Los Angeles USA 56,520,843 59,070,127 7 Paris CDG, Aeroport de Paris Charles de Gaulle France 57,906,866 58,167,062 8 Dallas DFW, Dallas/Fort Worth USA 56,030,457 56,906,610 9 Frankfurt FRA, Frankfurt Airport Germany 50,932,840 53,009,221 10 Denver DEN, Denver USA 50,167,485 52,209,377 11 Hong Kong HKG, Hong Kong China 45,558,807 50,348,960 12 Madrid MAD, Aeropuerto de Madrid-Barajas Spain 48,250,784 49,844,596 13 Dubai DXB, Dubai UAE 40,901,752 47,180,628 14 New York JFK, John F. Kennedy USA 45,915,069 46,514,154 15 Amsterdam AMS, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol Netherlands 43,570,370 45,211,749 16 Jakarta CGK, Soekarno–Hatta Indonesia 37,143,719 44,355,998 17 Bangkok BKK, Bangkok Thailand 40,500,224 42,784,967 18 Singapore SIN, Singapore Changi Airport Singapore 37,203,978 42,038,777 19 Guangzhou CAN, Guangzhou Baiyun China 37,048,712 40,975,673 20 Shanghai PVG, Shanghai Pudong China – 40,578,621 21 Houston IAH, George Bush Intercontinental Airport USA 40,007,354 40,479,569 22 Las Vegas LAS, McCarran USA 40,469,012 39,757,359 23 San Francisco SFO, San Francisco USA 37,338,942 39,253,999 24 Phoenix PHX, Phoenix Sky Harbor USA 37,824,982 38,554,215 25 Charlotte CLT, Charlotte Douglas USA 34,536,666 38,254,207 Conclusions The airport under consideration is among the largest in the world and in the United States of America. It is usually on top of the different rankings according to the number of passengers. We have analyzed the number of passengers of the airport during some period of time. We can say that this number has been constantly growing from the foundation of the airport. Moreover, the industry has significant perspectives for development. That is why we may assume that the number of passengers will be growing. Works cited Charlotte Douglas International Airport Official Website. Web. 07 Nov. 2012, Read More