Airport choice in Germany: New empirical evidence of the 2003 German air traveller survey

Abstract

The paper deals with the quantitative relationship between the number of air travellers in a region and the airports chosen in Germany in 2003. The paper presents results of an analysis of airport choice behaviour of total air passenger demand in Germany, based on data from the German air traveller survey conducted at 17 international and five regional airports. Approximately 210,000 passengers were interviewed about their trip origin, destination, choice of travel mode to the airport, purpose of their journey and further related journey and personal attributes. As a result of analysing these data, the distribution of airports chosen by passengers coming from different regions in Germany can be shown in relation to the journey purpose and destination. Based on these data, logit models have been calibrated for each market segment to forecast airport choice in relation to the accessibility and attractiveness of airports. The research in the present paper is intended to describe the formulation, estimation and application of an airport choice model by market segment for use in a subsequent paper.