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Working Paper

U.S. Air Passenger Service: A Taxonomy of Route Networks, Hub Locations, and Competition

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In this paper, we analyze the service provided by the 13 largest U.S. passenger airlines to the 100 most populous U.S. metropolitan areas in 1989. We classify the route systems by their nature and geographical extent using a variety of measures based on route-level data. We then identify individual airline hub locations and derive and calculate several measures of the extent of competition both on individual routes and at the airports in our sample. The results show the wide diversity of route networks that existed in the airline industry in 1989--a phenomenon that may help to explain the failure of several major carriers since then.
12.01.1992ISSN 2573-7953 WP 92-16DOI 10.26509/frbc-wp-199216

Working Papers of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland are preliminary materials circulated to stimulate discussion and critical comment on research in progress. They may not have been subject to the formal editorial review accorded official Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland publications. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland or the Federal Reserve System.

Suggested Citation

Bania, Neil, Paul Bauer, and Thomas Zlatoper. 1992. “U.S. Air Passenger Service: A Taxonomy of Route Networks, Hub Locations, and Competition.” Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Working Paper No. 92-16. https://doi.org/10.26509/frbc-wp-199216