Airline Price Competition: A Time Series Analysis of 'Low-Cost' Carriers.

This paper, after providing an introduction to the operating context of low cost carriers in Europe, examines the competitive pricing behaviour of airlines. Data is collected by route for cases where more than one airline is in direct competition. Data on fares is obtained from the internet for two airlines with competing services to Alicante, Prague and Malaga, departing from Nottingham East Midlands Airport in the UK, for the six working weeks up to and including the actual departure. These destinations represent leisure traffic. Two domestic business destinations were also selected to illustrate price competition on business demand where departure times were within a maximum of 20 minutes of each other and a further examination of competing services from London Gatwick (LGW) was made. Cross Correlation Analysis is used to examine whether, subject to a variety of lags, the prices offered by one airline can be seen to be both correlated with the other price series and to lead it. This provides some insight into the pricing strategy adopted by the competitors. Autocorrelation Functions (ACFs) and Partial Autocorrelation Functions (PACFs) can also be produced on the prices offered by each airline. These suggest the nature of the ARIMA model that can be fitted to the series and these models can show the degree to which series values are correlated with their own past values and whether a reasonable model could be based on an ARIMA approach. The relative strength of these two relationships is examined; are prices more closely explained by the competitor's actions or the airlines own past price setting?

A systematic review of stress in staff caring for people with dementia living in 24-hour care settings

Background: Family carers of people with dementia are at risk of psychological morbidity, and it is suggested that this may also be the case in paid carers as caring for people with dementia can be emotionally and physically demanding. Care homes have historically had difficulty recruiting and retaining staff, and job stress has previously been linked to high turnover amongst long-term care staff. We performed a systematic review of studies of the prevalence of psychological stress in staff caring for people with dementia in residential long-term care settings.Methods: We conducted a comprehensive literature search of MEDLINE, PsychINFO and Web of Science databases up to May 2009, supplemented by a search of the references of all relevant articles. Search terms encompassed nursing staff, residential care and psychological distress. Validity of studies was graded by two authors independently using a standardized checklist.Results: We identified 601 studies of which five met our inclusion criteria. Two studies reported on prevalence rates of staff distress and found 37% and 5% levels of being "at risk" from burnout, four studies reported mean stress scores and all were low.Conclusions: All studies were either small or used instruments with unsatisfactory psychometric properties and so our conclusions are limited by the lack of good quality evidence. The preliminary evidence suggests that most staff who remain working in homes do not have a high prevalence of psychological stress or level of symptoms

Ryanair's Impact on Airline Market Share from the London Area Airports - a Time Series Analysis

Ryanair tends to operate to destinations from its UK bases that are not the main airports in the country being served and in this it differs from many other European low cost carriers. For example, it flies from London Stansted (STN) to Venice Treviso (TSF), whereas the competition flies from other London area airports to Venice Marco Polo (VCE). So although direct competition is not provided in the way that rival services operate between identical pairs of airports, indirect competition is provided. This raises the question, when Ryanair commence services, what is the impact on the market share of the incumbent airlines at these other airports? This can be shown by examining UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) data on scheduled passengers carried, along with OAG data on flight frequency, airline and aircraft type on a number of selected routes. The impact on market share can be shown and the conclusion suggested that total traffic is stimulated on these sectors so that incumbent's traffic might fall, be constant or even increase, whilst their share, and probably their yield, falls, as Ryanair exploits latent demand. These findings echo previous work, for example, Barrett (2000). These conclusions are really generated hypotheses and these can be tested more completely by a time series analysis on monthly passenger data from 1991- 2003

Aging and Feminization: Implications for Future Travel Demands of the Elderly

An increasing proportion of the oldest-old (85+) population, combined with a pronounced abundance of older women relative to older men, characterize the demographic development of industrialized countries. Both, aging and feminization, strongly influence the transportation demands of the future. As people age, their driving abilities diminish, leading to driving reduction and ultimately driving cessation. Moreover, the literature suggests that the driving adjustments operate differently for men and women. Especially, women are prone to cease driving at an earlier age than men, and thus are in need of travel modes other than driving at an earlier age. This paper therefore aims at estimating the demand for non-automobile based mobility of the elderly. Towards that end, it develops a multi-risk survival model that links the demographic shifts towards a growing elderly population and towards the feminization of the older population with driving cessations rates. The model is used to simulate the future demand for non-automobile based mobility of the elderly, as well as estimates of older men's and women's expected number of years without driving a car. Preliminary results for The Netherlands and the U.S. suggest that, while women's conditional life expectancies are substantially higher than those of men, there is barely any difference between men's and women's expected number of years without driving a car. Moreover, in the Netherlands, demand growth rates will exceed the growth rates of the elderly population over the next 15 years. In the U.S., in contrast, excessive demand growth rates will occur substantially later, when the huge baby boom has reached the oldest age cohorts. The paper concludes with a discussion of policies and planning strategies needed to respond to the mobility needs of the elderly following driving reduction and driving cessation

U–Pb dating and Sm–Nd isotopic analysis of granitic rocks from the Tiris Complex : new constaints on key events in the evolution of the Reguibat Shield, Mauritania

The Reguibat Shield of N Mauritania and W Algeria represents the northern exposure of the West African Craton. As with its counterpart in equatorial West Africa, the Leo Shield, it comprises a western Archaean Domain and an eastern Palaeoproterozoic Domain. Much of the southern part of the Archaean Domain is underlain by the Tasiast-Tijirit Terrane and Amsaga Complex which, along with the Ghallaman Complex in the northeast, preserve a history of Mesoarchaean crustal growth, reworking and terrane assembly. This study presents new U–Pb and Sm–Nd data from the Tiris Complex, a granite–migmatite–supracrustal belt, that intervenes between these units and the Palaeoproterozoic Domain to the northeast. New U–Pb geochronology indicates that the main intrusive events, broadly associated with formation of dome-shaped structures, occurred at around 2.95–2.87 Ga and 2.69–2.65 Ga. This study also recognises younger regional metamorphism and intrusion of syn-tectonic granites located within major shear zones at around 2.56–2.48 Ga. Sm–Nd depleted mantle model ages indicate that magmatism involved recycling of crustal source components older than at least 3.25 Ga in age. Comparison with other Archaean units in the Reguibat Shield and in the Leo Shield illustrate the importance of deformation and tectonism of a regional greenstone-sedimentary province prior to around 3.00 Ga as well as subsequent magmatic episodes broadly equivalent in age to those in the Tiris Complex

An empirical investigation into the changing visual identity of full service and low cost carriers, 2000 vs. 2012

Purpose: This paper reports on the findings of an analysis of the visual branding of over 630 airline tail fins as they appeared in 2000 and 2012. Design/methodology: Unlike existing studies of airlines’ visual identities that rely on a snap shot in time and examine all airlines, this paper focuses on changes that have occurred in the visual branding of full-service carriers (FSCs) and low cost carriers (LCCs) between 2000 and 2012 using a semiotic content analysis. Findings: The results confirm that there have been significant changes in the visual content of FSC and LCC tail fins and the way in which these airlines portray non-price competitive characteristics. The research shows that while an increasing number of LCCs now use aircraft tail fins to display their corporate name, FSCs are increasingly employing icons of nationhood. This suggests that while LCCs are trying to appeal to a wide passenger demographic who value low fares over service, FSCs are responding to the competitive threat by explicitly drawing on the cultural rhetoric of symbols of sovereign national identity to differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive market. Originality/value: This paper builds on previous analyses of this type focusing on temporal comparisons and suggesting differing strategies adopted by LCCs and FSCs.Peer Reviewe

Aging and Feminization: Implications for Future Travel Demands of the Elderly

An increasing proportion of the oldest-old (85+) population, combined with a pronounced abundance of older women relative to older men, characterize the demographic development of industrialized countries. Both, aging and feminization, strongly influence the transportation demands of the future. As people age, their driving abilities diminish, leading to driving reduction and ultimately driving cessation. Moreover, the literature suggests that the driving adjustments operate differently for men and women. Especially, women are prone to cease driving at an earlier age than men, and thus are in need of travel modes other than driving at an earlier age. This paper therefore aims at estimating the demand for non-automobile based mobility of the elderly. Towards that end, it develops a multi-risk survival model that links the demographic shifts towards a growing elderly population and towards the feminization of the older population with driving cessations rates. The model is used to simulate the future demand for non-automobile based mobility of the elderly, as well as estimates of older men's and women's expected number of years without driving a car. Preliminary results for The Netherlands and the U.S. suggest that, while women's conditional life expectancies are substantially higher than those of men, there is barely any difference between men's and women's expected number of years without driving a car. Moreover, in the Netherlands, demand growth rates will exceed the growth rates of the elderly population over the next 15 years. In the U.S., in contrast, excessive demand growth rates will occur substantially later, when the huge baby boom has reached the oldest age cohorts. The paper concludes with a discussion of policies and planning strategies needed to respond to the mobility needs of the elderly following driving reduction and driving cessation.

Airline Price Competition: A Time Series Analysis of 'Low-Cost' Carriers

This paper, after providing an introduction to the operating context of low cost carriers in Europe, examines the competitive pricing behaviour of airlines. Data is collected by route for cases where more than one airline is in direct competition. Data on fares is obtained from the internet for two airlines with competing services to Alicante, Prague and Malaga, departing from Nottingham East Midlands Airport in the UK, for the six working weeks up to and including the actual departure. These destinations represent leisure traffic. Two domestic business destinations were also selected to illustrate price competition on business demand where departure times were within a maximum of 20 minutes of each other and a further examination of competing services from London Gatwick (LGW) was made. Cross Correlation Analysis is used to examine whether, subject to a variety of lags, the prices offered by one airline can be seen to be both correlated with the other price series and to lead it. This provides some insight into the pricing strategy adopted by the competitors. Autocorrelation Functions (ACFs) and Partial Autocorrelation Functions (PACFs) can also be produced on the prices offered by each airline. These suggest the nature of the ARIMA model that can be fitted to the series and these models can show the degree to which series values are correlated with their own past values and whether a reasonable model could be based on an ARIMA approach. The relative strength of these two relationships is examined; are prices more closely explained by the competitor's actions or the airlines own past price setting