Anming Zhang

University of British Columbia | UBC · Sauder School of Business

The rapid expansion of low-cost carriers (LCCs) in East and Southeast Asia has brought fierce competition to full-service carriers (FSCs). Competition in the air transport market is at an all-time high, thanks to the ongoing liberalization in air transport in the last several decades. This chapter assesses the efficiency performance of major FSCs i...

China Railway Express (CR Express) has been fast developed, offering an alternative to transportation of the containerized cargo between China and Europe. This paper examines CO 2 emissions and social welfare implications of the intermodal competition between the emerging CR Express and incumbent maritime shipping. An analytical model is developed,...

In Summer 2022, after a lean COVID-19 spell of almost three years, many airlines reported profits and some airlines even outperformed their pre-pandemic records. In context of the perceived recovery, it is interesting to understand how different markets have gone through the pandemic challenges. In this study, we perform a spatial and temporal diss...

For nearly three years with the COVID-19 pandemic, China has implemented a set of strict policies to control the flux of potential virus carriers in cross-border flights: The so-called Circuit Breaker mechanism. In this study, we review the evolution of this mechanism - a rather unique experiment in the global aviation system - from a data-driven p...

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the transportation sector hard; particularly air transportation, as a major mode of long-distance transportation, has been affected tremendously. Since the dawn of COVID-19, politicians and policy makers have discussed the idea of introducing travel bubbles between countries (or counties), to allow for a continued exch...

Air transportation, in particular, has faced unprecedented effects by COVID-19 in terms of flight cancellations and airline bailouts; some argue that the air transportation sector is probably among the hardest hit. In this study, we explore the impact of COVID-19 on air transportation as a networked system throughout the year 2020, while taking the...

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented in airline history, with irregular flight bans, the inability for accurate demand estimation, several turns in the epidemiological evolution, and a wide range of downstream effects on all aviation stakeholders. While most airlines have increasingly entered a recovery stage, compared to the utmost...

The major metropolitan airports in Australia have become increasingly congested, resulting in substantial increases in operational costs and waiting time at these airports. This paper assesses the effectiveness of subsidy programs in shifting airfreight from metropolitan airports to regional airports assuming the vehicle routing problem approach is...

China Eastern Airlines launched a ‘Wild Your Weekends' programme offering buyers an unlimited number of free trips during weekends, which is unprecedented in the Chinese airline market and also rare around the world. However, it is unclear whether such a promotion is effective in improving airlines’ liquidity. This study adopts the difference-in-di...

The devastating impact of COVID-19 on aviation is unprecedented and undoubted in the recent sci-entific literature, with many studies having dissected different facets of COVID-19-induced changes to the industry. A few studies have stepped further and highlighted that the COVID-19 pandemic could have positive long-term impacts on aviation. Given th...

Aviation has been hit hard by COVID-19, with passengers stranded in remote destinations, airlines filing for bankruptcy, and uncertain demand scenarios for the future. Travel bubbles are discussed as one possible solution, meaning countries which have successfully constrained the spread of COVID-19 gradually increase their mutual international flig...

COVID-19 has hit our society hard, with more than 242 million cases reported worldwide and more than 4.9 million directly related fatalities. The role of Africa throughout the pandemic has been puzzling, since the African continent seems to have gone through the pandemic better than other continents; clearly better than predicted by the public duri...

This paper reviews existing literature on the CO2 emissions implications of high-speed rail (HSR) projects due to its interactions with air, road, and ordinary-speed rail. We conceptually classify the studies into three levels, with the first focusing on the emission comparison between HSR and the other modes, the second on the emission implication...

While COVID-19 has devastating effects on aviation, several recent studies have highlighted the potential of the pandemic-induced break for rethinking air transportation, hopefully orchestrating changes towards the construction of a more pandemic-resilient aviation system. Here, pandemic-resilient means that aviation stakeholders can sustain the im...

The impact of COVID-19 on air transport is unprecedented and some well-known airline brands may disappear as a result. Governments around the world have responded swiftly to cushion the financial impact by offering direct wage subsidies, tax relief, loans, etc. This paper explores the government’s appropriate responses to failing airlines’ bailout...

This paper provides an ex-post assessment of net carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail (HSR) by including both mode substitution and traffic generation effects with a life-cycle approach. We are among the first authors to examine the emissions effects of a long-haul HSR and to consider the effects of avoided infrast...

After more than a year with COVID-19, it becomes increasingly clear that certain variants of concern have the potential to be game changers, determining the future of our aviation. These variants pose significant health threats and possibly undermine ongoing vaccination efforts. Recent research showed that flight bans on the initial SARS-CoV-2 outb...

With unique datasets, this paper studies the distributional impact of high-speed rail (HSR) on industrial developments by examining the house price premium of industrial parks in two important core-periphery city pairs of China: Shanghai-Suzhou and Beijing-Langfang. We find that in core cities, the premium of service industrial parks (SIPs) has gro...

This research first examines the link connectivity of major Northeast Asian carriers at country levels, and then uses a dynamic network DEA model to assess these carriers’ efficiency performance. The connectivity measure suggests that although China, Japan and Korea differ in the size of domestic markets, the major carriers of the three countries d...

This article catalogues experiences of the general aviation sector as it progressively encountered the challenges of COVID-19 in the early part of 2020. The article focuses primarily on the Australian marketplace as a contribution to the body of knowledge in an under-researched industry sector. The article draws on literature pertaining to prior pa...

COVID-19 has been a major setback for air transportation; many airlines had to request for bailouts and the international flights connectivity is only restarting slowly. Accordingly, many aviation stakeholders put hopes into the ongoing process of vaccination, with the expectation that a high degree of vaccination will push the envelope for a retur...

Despite China's massive infrastructure expansions in airports and high-speed railway (HSR), accessibility to these infrastructures from the passenger's perspective has yet been clearly analyzed and compared. The main objectives of this study are: (1) to evaluate accessibility by travel time between a given population grid cell and the nearest airpo...

This paper examines the effects of HSR development on airport technical efficiency and the labor productivity at airports. Existing literature mainly focuses on the impacts of HSR on passenger traffic. In addition to passengers, HSR development may influence airports’ other outputs such as cargo and flight movements together with various inputs. Th...

This paper demonstrates that transportation networks may be used to assess and predict the regional risk of COVID-19 infection from the outbreak. We use China’s high-speed rail (HSR) network at the scale of prefecture level to assess, based on a probabilistic risk model, the risk of COVID-19 infection from Wuhan to the country’s 31 province-level r...

This paper aims to analyze and understand the impact of the corona virus disease (COVID-19) on aviation and also the role aviation played in the spread of COVID-19, by reviewing the recent scientific literature. We have collected 110 papers on the subject published in the year 2020 and grouped them according to their major application domain, leadi...

This paper provides an overview of the development of the low-cost carrier (LCC) sector in China, Japan, and South Korea. It is the first paper that documents LCC contributions to the passenger traffic and cheaper fares in Northeast Asia (NEA)'s intra-markets. We argue that a single aviation market can facilitate the growth of the LCC sector, which...

COVID-19 is one of the most impactful pandemics in recent history, not only in terms of direct casualties but also regarding socio-economic impact. The goal of our study is to investigate the degree of synchronization between the number of confirmed cases in specific countries, on one hand, and how/at which stage these countries adapted their air t...

In the last 30 years, many major airports around the world have embraced the concept of an ‘airport city’ through the development of both aviation and non-aviation related businesses and a localised planning policy response in support of these endeavours. In the Australian neo-liberal planning environment, there has been little federal policy direc...

The current outbreak of COVID-19 is an unprecedented event in air transportation. This is probably the first time that global aviation contributed to the planet-wide spread of a pandemic, with casualties in over two hundred countries. As of August 23rd, 2020, the number of infected cases has topped 23 million, reportedly relating to more than 800,0...

The current outbreak of COVID-19 is an unprecedented event in air transportation. In this study, we investigate the impact of COVID-19 on global air transportation through the lens of complex networks different at different scales, ranging from worldwide airport networks where airports are nodes and links between airports exist when direct flights...

This research examines whether cities are getting more equally accessible and connected via high-speed rail (HSR) in China over the period from 2010 to 2015. Existing studies mainly use network centralities to describe the spatial pattern of HSR network without measuring the spatial disparity of these centralities, and most of them rely on the infr...

This paper develops an analytical model allowing one to better understand the relationship between the ‘Belt’ and the ‘Road’ in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Firstly, we establish the link between the minimum subsidies received by the rail operators from the Chinese governments and the market conditions in the maritime sector. Then, we ch...

The current outbreak of COVID-19 is an unprecedented event in air transportation. While it was known that air transportation plays a key role in the spread of a pandemic, it is probably the first time that global aviation contributed to the planet-wide spread of a pandemic, with over 500,000 reported casualties related to the infection. In this stu...

To understand the roles of different transport modes in the spread of COVID-19 pandemic across Chinese cities, this paper looks at the factors influencing the number of imported cases from Wuhan and the spread speed and pattern of the pandemic. We find that frequencies of air flights and high-speed train (HST) services out of Wuhan are significantl...

Despite rich literature on high-speed rail (HSR) and air transport interactions, the HSR's impact on the conventional (low-speed) rail service surprisingly has yet well studied. This paper fills in this research gap by providing empirical evidence in the Chinese intercity travel markets, where large-scale HSR expansion has been conducted since 2008...

China has become the second largest air transport market in the world since 2005. Its total length of high-speed rail (HSR) tracks in operation has been greater than that of all other countries combined since 2012. HSR poses a significant challenge to the Chinese airline industry, especially on major airline routes. The impacts of HSR on two market...

Increasing awareness of sustainability in supply chain management has prompted organizations and individuals to consider environmental impacts when managing supply chains. The issues concerning environmental impacts are significant in cold supply chains due to substantial carbon emissions from storage and distribution of temperature-sensitive produ...

Improving the efficiency and resilience of air transportation is one of the major challenges in the 21st century. Large cities are often in the catchment area of multiple airports. Accordingly, the services at these airports can be comple-mentary or competitive; an airport-specific view of resilience neglects the effects of such interactions. In th...

With the prevalence of global terminal operators in port operation, the market structure of terminal operator companies (TOCs) becomes more important in shaping intra- and inter-port competition and cooperation (i.e., coopetition). The port adaptation investment to climate change-related disaster might also be affected by such TOC intra- and inter-...

This paper studies the evolution of global air transport network over the period 2006–2016. A Global Airport Connectivity Index (GACI) is proposed, combining degree, closeness and eigenvector topological indicators and two new volumetric indicators. We find faster passenger growth for larger airports that have improved in GACI. While America and No...

We explore the impacts of high-speed rail (HSR) development on airport-level traffic by considering not only the availability of air-HSR intermodal linkage between the airport and HSR station but also the position of the airport’s city in the HSR network. The latter is measured by both the degree centrality (to reflect connectivity) and the harmoni...

Using a dynamic network DEA approach, this research examines the efficiency performance of major Chinese and Indian air carriers with a consideration of the airline's internal processes and links as well as the carry-over items that connect consecutive time periods. It is found that two low-cost carriers (LCCs), namely, China's Spring and India's S...

This study develops a Connectivity Utility Model that can be used to assess the connectivity of an airport, a train station, a city or a region in multi-modal transport networks involving multiple quality dimensions of transport services. This new connectivity measure considers both direct connections, and single- and multi-modal indirect connectio...

This research examines whether regions/cities in the HSR networks are getting more equally accessible and connectable as the rapid expansion of HSR in China. Existing studies have either focused on the association between HSR development and regional economic disparities or hampered by a lack of data. Using data derived from train timetable, we obt...

This paper investigates the factors affecting air passengers’ transfer airport choice in the market between Southeast Asia (SE Asia) and North America (NA). By estimating demand parameters, the study sheds lights on an airport operator’s business strategies, including identifying effective routes to compete for transfer passengers. Specifically, a...

This paper first reviews studies on the impacts of air-HSR competition on airlines, focusing on the overall effects of parallel HSR services on passengers' mode choice as well as on airlines’ flight frequency, traffic volume, fares, service quality and market power. The modal complementarity and air-HSR intermodal services, together with the networ...

We investigate the size and timing of investment in adaptation to climate change effects for ports, when efficiency of investment is uncertain and the market is competitive. We develop a two-period real options game model with two “landlord” ports, each consisting of a port authority (PA) and a downstream terminal operator company (TOC). The two PA...

In the literature, auto manufacturers' incentives for adopting electric vehicles and their interactions with government policies are understudied, especially through an analytical approach. We develop a game-theoretic model to investigate what vehicle types should be produced from both private firms' and social perspectives. We then propose an EV-s...

Within the context of a transition economy, this paper estimates how improved access to employment centers is capitalized into house price. We conduct an event study for the opening of subway Line 6 in Pudong district, Shanghai, China. The new line significantly reduces the commuting time to major employment centers. Other things being equal, easie...

This paper assesses air connectivity between China and Australia for the period 2005–16 using a Connectivity Utility Model. Our direct connectivity measure shows that as a gateway city, Sydney continues to play a key role in facilitating the movements of people and goods between China and Australia. Guangzhou has become the city best connected with...

This paper analyzes the effects of the busiest and most profitable high-speed rail (HSR) line in China — the Beijing-Shanghai HSR — on the aviation markets paralleling this HSR line. In general, we find that both airfare and air travel demand decreased significantly after the entry of the Beijing-Shanghai HSR. In particular, economy-class airfares...

This chapter reviews three main issues in the interactions between air transport and high-speed rail (HSR) in China, namely the interaction between low-cost carriers (LCCs) and HSR, HSR speed effect on airlines, and airline–HSR integration. Studies on these three aspects of airline–HSR interactions have yet been well reviewed, and our chapter aims...

The rapid development of high-speed rail (HSR) in the past decade has greatly promoted regional connectivity by linking airports that are previously independent of each other, thus facilitating the formation of a multi-airport system (MAS). As a result, air-HSR complementarity may serve as a way to efficiently re-allocate traffic within the newly g...

This paper analyzes the effects of the busiest and most profitable high-speed rail (HSR) in China-the Beijing-Shanghai HSR-on the airfare and air traffic of the aviation markets paralleling this HSR line. In general, we find that both airfare and air demand decreased significantly after the entry of Beijing-Shanghai HSR. In particular, economy clas...

This chapter reviews the history of regulation and deregulation in international air transport and discusses the positive impacts of deregulation and open skies on the tourism sector in the Asia Pacific region. The Hong Kong Bangkok market was examined, which shows that the granting of the fifth freedom rights has given the two places sufficient ai...

As two of the fastest-growing economies, China and India share many similarities. However, the air transport sector of the two countries exhibits substantial differences 30 years after deregulation. Private and low-cost airlines have become dominant players in the Indian airline market while the state-owned airlines still enjoy a dominant status in...

We explore the impacts ofhigh-speed rail (HSR) developmentson airport-level traffic by considering not only the availability of air-HSR intermodal linkage between the airport and HSR station but also the position of the airport’scity in the HSR network. The latter is measured byboth the degree centrality (to reflect connectivity)and the harmonic ce...

This paper investigates the factors affecting air passengers’ transfer airport choice in the market between Southeast Asia (SE Asia) and North America (NA). By estimating demand parameters, the study sheds lights on an airport operator's business strategies, including identifying effective routes to compete for transfer passengers. Specifically, a...

Two important concepts of accessibility are proposed and measured in this paper: the attraction accessibility and the radiation accessibility. The attraction accessibility means the ease of reaching a given station by using certain modes of transport such as walking, bicycle, bus or taxi. The radiation accessibility represents the ease of reaching...

This paper explores the implications of an imperfectly competitive non-aeronautical market for cost recovery at a congestible airport. We show that aeronautical revenue under welfare maximization is short of its costs, because the optimal airport charge must be set lower than the first-best level, to counteract market power in the non-aeronautical...

This review interprets recent studies of the interactions between the competition of gateway seaports and the accessibility of landside transportation links to inland regions. Port competition is treated as part of a rivalry between two transportation chains. This article identifies the main modeling approaches and defines the different types of hi...

Air-rail integration has become a popular idea to relieve airport congestion and environmental impact of transport industry, especially amid the fast expansion of high-speed rail network around the world. This study examines the circumstances under which air-rail integration can be better justified, by focusing on the effects of reducing air-rail c...

We study empirically how global carriers determine the regions to serve and the number of port calls on the Chinese coast, based on service schedules in 2011–15. Increasing ship size, within a certain range, leads to more clusters/ports visited. Beyond that, container ships visit fewer clusters, not necessarily fewer ports. Therefore, even if two p...

This paper examines China’s large-scale high-speed rail (HSR) expansion, announced in July 2016, and the associated benefits assessment of the expansion program from the perspective of HSR-LCC (low-cost carriers) interactions. Our analysis suggests that in the highly populated and developed corridors the HSR expansion is likely to leave LCCs with l...

This paper proposes a dynamic weighted model to measure the connectivity of intercity passenger transportation in China. We consider both quality and quantity of the connections of two transport modes: air and rail. Among the 23 major cities selected, Shanghai is revealed to have the highest connectivity level, leading in both air and rail connecti...

This study calculates the connectivity of 69 Chinese airports and identifies the underlying drivers of the variation in airport connectivity over a period 2005–2016. Our connectivity model incorporates multiple discount factors including capacity and velocity penalties to correct for the quality of a connection. We find that Chinese airports experi...

While airport aeronautical charges are traditionally aircraft-weight related, currently an increasing share of aeronautical airport revenues is derived from passenger related charges. This paper compares the optimal mix of per-passenger and per-flight based (cost recovering) airport charges from the carriers’ and the social viewpoints when carrier...