RESOURCES
RESOURCES: PAPERS & PRESENTATIONS
Author : | Jan Henrik Nilsson |
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School/Work Place : | Lund University, Sweden |
Contact : | jan-henrik.nilsson@ism.lu.se |
Year : | 2012 |
Considering the apparent importance of low-cost aviation, and its dramatic development, there is remarkably little research done about its consequences on European mobility. A few studies have mapped the development of networks (cf. Dobruszkes, 2006 & 2009), but there are few studies about the actual flows of passengers. Equally surprising, there are few studies discussing the environmental consequences of low-cost aviation, i.e. on climate change. Dobruszkes (2009: 424) summarizes the present state of social science research about low-cost aviation as follows: ‘The development of European low-cost air services has been the subject of a significant amount of scholarly literature. However, if we focus on the geography of these services, the literature is far more limited. It is even more scant if we set aside the case studies that relate only to a given airport or a very small number of routes’ (emphasis added). With this in mind, the purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of low-cost aviation on regional patterns of travel and mobility, based on a longitudinal study of air traffic in the eastern part of the Baltic Sea Area. Limiting the investigation to a fairly small, but highly diverse, geographical area allows for a reasonably qualified analysis.