On 18th September, 2019, we welcome Prof. Anming Zhang to our series lecture on “Economics and Business”, as well as his speechonImpacts of High-speed Rail on Airlines, Airports and Regional Economies: A Survey of Recent Research.Anming Zhang is a Full Professor in Operations and Logistics and holds Vancouver International Airport Authority Chair Professor in Air Transportation at Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia (UBC). He served as the Head of the Operations and Logistics Division, Sauder School of Business (2003-2005), and as the Director of UBC’s Centre for Transport Studies (2003-2004). He is President-elect of the World Air Transport Research Society (ATRS) and the President-elect of Transportation and Public Utilities Group (TPUG) of American Economic Association. The lecture was hosted by Dr. Chunan Wang from School of Economics and Management at Beihang University.
In the followinglecture,Prof. Anming Zhang has reviewedstudies on the impacts of air-HSR competition on airlines, focusing on the overall effects of parallel HSR services on passengers’ mode choice as well as on airlines’ flight frequency, traffic volume, fares, service quality and market power. The modal complementarity and air-HSR intermodal services, together with the network feature of airline business, are also examined. The paper then reviews theoretical and empirical findings on the impacts of HSR on airports and regional economies. Here, the main insights include: First, HSR can have a traffic redistribution effect on airport traffic; in particular, some primary hub airports with good air connectivity may gain traffic while others may lose traffic. Second, to mitigate congestion at hub airports, policy makers may consider diverting some traffic to regional airports by promoting air-HSR intermodal services. Third, as HSR may stimulate long-haul / international air traffic, its overall impact on emission reduction remains unclear. Finally, similar to the impacts on airport traffic, spatial disparity of economic activities may also rise after the introduction of HSR. In general, the disparity tends to rise between the cities with HSR and those without HSR, as the former gets better accessibility. However, among the cities with HSR services, the disparity between the large and small cities could increase or decrease depending on several factors.
During and after the lecture, more than 40 scholars and students from BUAA SEM discussed the key points of the talk with Prof. Anming Zhang, and also raised quite a few relevant questions,which provoke further thinking on the issue from both parties.
