European Hub Airport Competition: An Assessment of Market Concentration in the Local Catchment and in the Transfer Market

The airport market is considered to exhibit significant market power and has therefore been subject to different types of economic regulation. Multiple studies have been investigating the degree of market power in order to implement regulation accordingly. Different approaches are pursued in regard to market power assessment, including the switching potential of passengers and airlines, or the implications of airports as two-sided markets, enabling a comprehensive insight whether an airport has a dominant position on a particular market segment.

The analysis in this chapter contributes to the discussion of hub airport competition by assessing the destination overlap both in the origin and destination and in the transfer market. For this purpose, the market concentration of European hub airports is analysed using the Herfindahl Hirschman Index, for each destination offered at the selected hub airports and the respective development over time. This analysis shows that the majority of European hub airports has a dominant position in both the origin-destination and transfer market. However, it can be observed that the level of market concentration has been decreasing over time, thus implying a higher overlap between destinations offered at hub airports and their competitive counterparts, and potentially more choice for passengers.