ADVANCED AVIATION ECONOMICS Question 1 There are various factors that are expected to drive demand for air travel. One of these is the increase in purchasing power of the people coupled with economic growth. Typically higher economic growth would imply that the disposable incomes would increase. With higher disposable incomes, the discretionary spend on travel and tourism is expected to increase. Also, it is estimated that development of backward regions would improve resulting in high industrialisation and improved connectivity (Mankiw, 2014). Another factor which is important is the price of air tickets. Airline travel tends to obey the law of demand and hence lower prices would imply higher air travel. Hence, entry of budget airlines would be a positive sign for the industry. Further, the price of the alternatives such as high speed rail would also be a deciding factor as the underlying elasticity of the air travel to an extent would be influenced by the availability of cheaper alternatives (Arnold, 2015). Question 2 In the recent times, there has been an increase in the low cost carriers and budget airlines globally which has propelled the growth of passenger traffic by expanding the target market. It is expected that this trend would continue in the future. The impact of higher discretionary spending is also leading to higher demand for air travel. This is especially the case with Asia Pacific region which is witnessing the fastest growth rate in terms of passenger traffic for last three years (Rosen, 2018).It is expected that air travel would continue to grow in the long run considering that no close substitutes is available. The high speed rail infrastructure is only available on selected routes.
ADVANCED AVIATION ECONOMICS References Arnold, A.R. (2015).Microeconomics(9thed.). New York: Cengage Learning. Mankiw, G. (2014)Microeconomics(6thed.). London: Worth Publishers. Rosen, E. (2018)Over 4 Billion Passengers Flew In 2017 Setting New Travel Record, Retrievedfromhttps://www.forbes.com/sites/ericrosen/2018/09/08/over-4-billion- passengers-flew-in-2017-setting-new-travel-record/#375e0257255b