This book stems from a series of biennial conferences devoted to issues affecting air-transport provision in remoter regions that have been organized by the Centre for Air Transport in Remoter Regions at Cranfield University. The primary aim of the conferences has been to provide an opportunity for those responsible for operating, managing, regulating and financing air transport services and associated infrastructure in these areas to be informed of the latest best-practice initiatives, to contrast different policy approaches and to debate potential solutions to perennial problems. Remoter regions has been a neglected area of air transport, as much of the focus of public and media attention is on the larger airlines, airports and aircraft. While the number of large airports in the world is in the hundreds, there are many thousands of smaller airports providing communities all over the globe with vital air links. More often than not these services and the airports to which they are operated are loss making and require subsidies to sustain them. There are therefore many more interested parties involved in both providing and deciding issues relating to the provision of air transport in these situations, most especially central, regional and local governments who are charged with financing these activities. The book contains 17 chapters from experts in remote-region air transport, within the following 5 sections: key economic and socio-economic issues; subvention mechanisms; route development initiatives; infrastructure provision; and, issues affecting the provision of air services in remoter regions.

Table of Contents

Introduction, George Williams; Part A Provision of Air Services and Their Impact: Deciding on the right amount of air transport in remoter regions - key issues, Svein Brathen; Trends in air service development within the Highlands and Islands of Scotland 1983-2006, Romano Pagliari; Developing air services in the Azores, Luis Silveira; The economic impact of air transport in remoter regions, Jon Inge Lian; The marketing of small regional airports, Nigel Halpem.; Part B Subvention Mechanisms: European experience of public service obligations, George Williams; Experience of PSO and the tendering process in Sweden, Goran Anger, Johan Holmer and Par-Erik Westin; Tendering for and operating PSO routes, Basil O'Fee.; Part C Infrastructure Provision: Airports infrastructure in Europe's remoter regions, Rodney Fewings; Problems of complying with Annex 14 at Norwegian aerodromes, Are Lien; Developing airports in a long term perspective - the case of Tromso, Svein Brathen and Knut Fuglum.; Part D Innovation: Virtual airlines: the concept of local heroes (not) flying, Lennart Bergbom and Johan Holmer; Transportation of goods and passengers to remote areas using airships: 2 case studies in India, Rajkumar S. Pant; ICAO's tourism development route scheme, Ian Lowden and David J. Bentley.; Part E Key Future Issues: Aviation and climate change - facing the challenge, Olav Mosvold Larsen and John Sjolander; A replacement sub-20 seat aircraft for remoter regions operations, Andy Foster; Effects of reducing the high price of air travel in remoter regions, George Williams and Svein Brathen; Index.

About the Author

Dr. George Williams is Reader in Airline Economics at Cranfield University. With an academic background in Transport Economics, he has extensive international lecturing experience and has written two books and over 50 papers and research reports all exploring the impact of deregulation on the airline industry. In 1998 he was appointed Special Adviser to the UK House of Lords European Communities Committee enquiry into the Commission's proposals to extend its powers to apply existing competition provisions to air services between the EU and third countries. He has led major studies into airline service provision in Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the UK on behalf of the European Commission, Government departments, regulatory authorities, airlines and airport authorities. He heads the Centre for Air Transport in Remoter Regions, which organises a bi-annual international Forum devoted to issues concerning air transport provision in Remoter Regions, the most recent of which was held in Lisbon in April 2007. He is a Fellow of both the Royal Aeronautical Society and the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport. Svein Brathen holds a BSc in Civil Engineering, a BSc in Economics and a Ph.D. in Transportation Economics. He is currently affiliated as Associate Professor at Molde University College in Norway, and he is also heading the Department of Transport Research at Molde Research Institute. His research is mainly within Air Transport Economics, Regional Economics, Economic Impact Assessment (EIA) and Supply Chain Management. Brathen has been responsible for developing the EIA Handbook to be used in Norway for larger air transport investments and he has also done analyses of the Norwegian regional airport system as well as the larger airports. This work has been published internationally in Air Transport Management (2000) and in Van Geenhuizen et al (2007) Policy analysis of Transportation Networks. Ashgate. Forthcoming international publications in other research areas are on road tolling (Transportation Research Part A), and Public Private Partnerships (International Journal of Sustainable Transportation). Brathen is appointed as Associate Editor in the International Journal of Information Systems and Supply Chain Management.