Airport Choice in Multiple-Airport Regions

Abstract

A logistic model is constructed to predict airport choice in a multiple-airport region and estimated using passenger data from the Washington, D.C./Baltimore area. In agreement with previous work, it was found that airport access time and flight frequencies were significant predictors of airport choice, although, as might be expected, decreased access time and additional flight frequencies were more important to the business traveler than to the nonbusiness traveler. Additional estimations indicated that when only those passengers within reasonable proximity of more than one airport were included in the estimation, the significance of access time decreased and that of flight frequencies increased. Additional variables for a passenger's experience with an airport were then included in the model and were significant. This would indicate that passengers who have used an airport will tend to continue to use the same airport, all other factors being equal.