Flights and their economic impact on the airport catchment area: an application to the Italian tourist market

Traditionally, in the field of air transportation management airlines have been the main actors in the process of deciding which new flights to open in a given airport, while airports acted only as the managers of the operations. The changes in the market due to the introduction of low cost companies, with the consequent reduction of airports fares, as well as the increase in density of regional and secondary airports in many European countries are modifying the mutual roles of airlines and airports. Today, the final decision on new flights to be opened is the result of a negotiation between airlines, airports, and public stakeholders. The airports must prove the sustainability of the new routes and forecast the economic impact on their catchment area. This paper contributes to advance the current state-of-the-art providing a standard methodology to analyze the economic impact of flights and new airport routes. Subsequently, the methodology is applied to the summer tourism market in Sardinia and the winter tourism market in the North of Italy, in order to verify the adaptability of our approach to different characteristics of the tourist market.