Frédéric Dobruszkes

• PhD
• Senior Research Associate at Université Libre de Bruxelles

This paper revisits the concept of air/high-speed rail (HSR) integration in the specific case of congested airports, in which airport slots for (super) short-haul flights are freed by replacing them with high-speed trains. Freed slots are then likely allocated to longer flights, which leads to an increase in GHG emissions induced by flights from/to...

This study evaluates the effectiveness of airport slot reductions as a strategy for mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, focusing on Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. Following the Dutch Government’s decision to reduce slots from 500,000 to 440,000, we analyse various risk scenarios using the D’Hondt method for proportional slot allocation and the...

This paper extends previous research that has examined the impact of banning (super) short-haul flights on climate change. Looking at all scheduled passenger flights worldwide, our results confirm that policies focused on super short-haul flights would have very limited climate benefits. Flights of less than 500 km account for 26.7% of flights but...

Following mounting concerns about climate change induced by commercial flights, the aviation industry has reacted with narratives that emphasize the increase in fuel efficiency (fuel/passenger-km) of its operations. However, climate change is due to absolute fuel burnt. In this regard, this article compares trends in fuel efficiency with absolute f...

This paper investigates the gap in PT access to the city faced by disabled people when using public transport in Brussels. The research is carried out at the route level from all STIB-MIVB stops to 20 selected destinations across the city. The calculations compare unconstrained accessibility with accessibility restricted by six different travel con...

In this scientific advisory report, which offers guidance to public health policy-makers, the Superior Health Council of Belgium provides an overview of the potential health burden of aircraft noise and pollutant emissions on citizens living near Brussels Airport. This report aims at providing both authorities, citizens and the airport with specifi...

Cet article analyse le caractère inclusif des arrêts de transport public à Bruxelles pour les personnes en situation de handicap. L’approche combine des analyses qualitatives (entretiens et parcours commentés avec plusieurs associations, personnes en situation de handicap utilisatrices des transports publics et autorités publiques) et une analyse q...

Cet article analyse le caractère inclusif des arrêts de transport public à Bruxelles pour les personnes en situation de handicap. L’approche combine des analyses qualitatives (entretiens et parcours commentés avec plusieurs associations, personnes en situation de handicap utilisatrices des transports publics et autorités publiques) et une analyse q...

Cet article analyse le caractère inclusif des arrêts de transport public à Bruxelles pour les personnes en situation de handicap. L’approche combine des analyses qualitatives (entretiens et parcours commentés avec plusieurs associations, personnes en situation de handicap utilisatrices des transports publics et autorités publiques) et une analyse q...

Cet article étudie le déficit d’accès à la ville en transport public subi par les personnes en situation de handicap à Bruxelles. La recherche est conduite au niveau des itinéraires depuis tous les arrêts de la STIB vers 20 destinations réparties à travers la ville. Les calculs permettent d'établir une comparaison entre des trajets réalisés sans co...

Cet article étudie le déficit d’accès à la ville en transport public subi par les personnes en situation de handicap à Bruxelles. La recherche est conduite au niveau des itinéraires depuis tous les arrêts de la STIB vers 20 destinations réparties à travers la ville. Les calculs permettent d'établir une comparaison entre des trajets réalisés sans co...

Transport geography has become more diverse in terms of research themes, methods, and sources considered. New pathways for transport research have been initiated not only within the field but also by scholars from other disciplines, for instance, sociology and environmental science. In addition, the advent of the big data era has offered new resear...

Seasonality is an essential issue for service industries but lacks the attention of most transport scholars. To close this gap, this study explored the spatial heterogeneity and determinants of flight seasonality from a supply-side perspective, using the monthly flights of 222 airports in China during 2018 as a sample. The following conclusions wer...

Several countries have considered banning or even decided to ban or tax super short-haul flights, arguing that the availability of rail alternatives makes them unnecessary. Such policies result from the need for governments to be seen as acting to mitigate climate change and scholars favouring energy (climate) efficiency perspectives over the absol...

Airport location is a well-known planning issue that can have a significant impact on a city’s accessibility, economy, noise pollution, and residents’ well-being. In this article, we leverage existing open-source geoinformation and geographical information system (GIS) software to compute statistical indicators that allow us to characterize worldwi...

Aviation seasonality has been acknowledged for a long time, but no global picture is available. Our paper fills this gap by conducting a worldwide analysis of monthly passenger air services at the airport level, and discussing factors that shape this temporality. Our study found that 36% of airports worldwide (accounting for less than 12% of seats)...

This article introduces a virtual special issue that carries the same title. We open our editorial by observing that the contemporary transport debate continues to find strong inspiration in the notion of “sustainable” development, which strongly resonates among academics and practitioners alike. While placing important environmental issues on the...

Investigating the determinants of air traffic has become somewhat commonplace. However, previous papers have neglected to distinguish between domestic and international markets and to think about spatial units. This paper examines the factors of passenger air traffic for the whole world and considers both national and sub-national units. The study...

This chapter highlights gaps in evidence-based knowledge related to low-cost carriers (LCCs). While LCCs have become commonplace in many regions, there is still a lot to investigate, considering the nature of the LCC business itself, its diversity, its impacts, and its specificity compared to traditional airlines. Topics include the drivers behind...

This paper revisits multiple-airport systems from a noise pollution perspective. It aims to investigate the contradictions between the (re)development of an older airport located close to the core city, despite the existence of newer airports on the one hand and noise pollution issues on the other hand. Case studies include Tokyo, Shanghai, Paris,...

The extent to which high-speed rail (HSR) could be socially egalitarian has been disregarded, despite evidence that upper social-occupational groups are the primary users of high-speed trains (HSTs). In this context, this review aims to fill the gap by investigating the social attributes of HSR passengers based on worldwide, available ex post data...

This chapter first investigates the geography of actual rail transport worldwide. In doing so, we set up a typology based upon network- and traffic-related indicators per country, with special attention paid to the distinction between passenger and freight traffic. Then the chapter covers the factors that explain the geography of infrastructures an...

This paper brings the lessons of critical thinking of environmental indicators to transport studies. To demonstrate the extent to which these indicators are not neutral, the case study focuses on airport noise indicators imposed by both the European Union and Flanders, Belgium, as they are applied to Brussels Airport's operations. Three directions...

Investigating the determinants of air passenger traffic has become commonplace. In contrast with most previous publications, this paper investigates these determinants in an emerging country, Turkey, at the provincial level between 2004 and 2014. We find that GDP/capita, population, distance to alternative airports, tourism, leading cities, and int...

This paper investigates the changes and current patterns of domestic passenger airline networks in South Africa, considering routes operated and volumes of seats supplied by carriers. This market was liberalised in 1991 and the new market-oriented policy was not challenged by the post-apartheid regime. Flag-carrier South African Airways (SAA) has l...

Scholars and experts in transportation, economics, geography and environmental studies have largely assumed the distance flown by commercial planes represents the shortest route (also known as the great-circle or orthodromic route). However, in the real world, planes follow longer itineraries for various reasons. The magnitude of these detours is a...

The US and Europe have long experienced the expansion of low-cost carriers (LCCs) in the aftermath of extensive aviation liberalisation offering free access to the market for US and European airlines, respectively. More recently, following the opening of the progressive aviation market, China has also emerged as a country that welcomed LCCs to some...

Air Transport – A Tourism Perspective is the first volume of the new Elsevier series on Contemporary Issues in Air Transport, providing a comprehensive analysis and rigorous insights on the current complexities, synergies, and conflicts within air transportation and tourism. Good air accessibility is a fundamental condition for the development of m...

This chapter proposes an overview of the reasons for flying that alternates between a focus on empirical material and methodological issues. Information gathered shows that leisure – defined here as holiday and visiting friend and relatives – is the dominant purpose of flying. This puts the alleged dominance of business travel into perspective, at...

The end of European charter airlines on short- and medium-haul routes has been widely forecast since the end of the 1990s. However, surprisingly the literature lacks analyses of charter airline networks at the city-pair level. Here the gap is filled by conducting a case study of two main European charter airlines, Thomson Airways and Condor. There...

The potential impacts of Brexit on transportation have been discussed to some extent, mostly considering the economic shock as a main factor that would affect the volume of passenger and cargo flows. However, one should also consider the expected impact in terms of regulatory regimes. This specifically concerns aviation, traditionally a tightly reg...

Although the Chinese high-speed railway (HSR) entered the transportation market at a late stage in 2003, its networks have become the world's largest and are currently even growing faster than airline networks. Using the 2013 origin/destination (O/D) passenger flow data instead of commonly used scheduled data, we compare the spatial configurations...

Since high-speed rail (HSR) is designed primarily to connect large cities, it challenges how smaller cities en-route are still going to be serviced by rail. Scholars have focused mainly on cities bypassed by HSR that have experienced a decrease in conventional rail services or on how several smaller cities have nevertheless been able to secure appr...

This paper questions the main techniques of mapping in the context of aircraft noise in the vicinity of airports, and compares these techniques in terms of their purpose, benefits and limitations. Then the paper describes a method to summarise radar traces of a given air transport departure or arrival route into a median route and its envelope cont...

Unlike income or relative prices, air transport attributes and tourism demand on a given route can be endogenous. Using instrumental variables, this study attempted to account for the circular causality in estimating the effect of direct air service on tourism demand. Although we found evidence of endogeneity, the nature of the circular causation i...

High-speed rail (HSR) has long been promoted in the name of the economic impacts it offers to cities or regions served (see other chapters in this book). Today, HSR is also often regarded as a ‘green’ mode of transport that should help to achieve so-called sustainable mobilities. This vision is based on some successful HSR services that have led to...

At a time when the liberalisation of air transport is increasingly being promoted as a means to induce the growth of the tourism business, it is striking that there is little evidence to suggest that such liberalisation has indeed led to a growth in tourism. Furthermore, the evidence is usually restricted to the impacts of sole low-cost airlines on...

This paper explores OUIGO (pronounced ‘we go’), the low-cost high-speed rail (HSR) service launched by the French state-owned railways in April 2013. In this exploration, we: (1) compare OUIGO with the traditional French HSR and the low-cost airlines (LCAs), and (2) analyse fares proposed by OUIGO and its competitors. We thus analyse the new servic...

Note: translated to Chinese by Zhang Siyang from Givoni M., Dobruszkes F. (2013), A review of ex-post evidence for mode substitution and induced demand following the introduction of High-Speed Rail, Transport Reviews 33(6), 720-742

This paper analyses whether the current provision of air services in Europe is impacted by high-speed rail (HSR). An ex-post analysis is carried out considering 161 routes EU-wide using transnational data. We use censored regressions with special attention paid to the presence of outliers in the sample and to the potential problem of non-normality...

The aim of this paper is to compare dynamics in terms of air services and international leisure mobility (both tourism and visits to friends and relatives [VFRs]) between the European Union (EU), on the one hand, and Morocco and Tunisia, on the other hand. Indeed, the EU-Morocco has been liberalised after 2006 and significant dynamics have occurred...

This paper explores OUIGO (pronounced ‘we go’), the low-cost high-speed rail (HSR) service launched by the French state-owned railways in April 2013. In this exploration, we: (1) compare OUIGO with the traditional French HSR and the low-cost airlines (LCAs), and (2) analyse fares proposed by OUIGO and its competitors. We thus analyse the new servic...

Comparing air service growth in Amsterdam and Brussels, this paper aims to understand how the strategies of airlines and public authorities allow certain medium-sized cities to succeed in exceeding their local market by connecting passengers, while others do not. In contrast to Brussels, Amsterdam has become one of the most air serviced European ci...

The geography of airline flows, both the supply and the demand, results from three main drivers: the geography of prior accumulations (of capital, business activities, administrative functions, immigrants and tourist facilities) and of interactions (e.g. headquarters vs. their subsidiaries, tourists vs. tourist spaces and immigrants vs. their home...

Bruxelles est confrontée à des défis majeurs en termes de mobilité et de logistique. Les encombrements structurels de, dans et vers Bruxelles constituent un problème quotidien récurrent. Le grand nombre de navetteurs (plus de la moitié des déplacements réalisés en voiture à Bruxelles) le grand nombre d’étudiants (près de 80 000), ainsi que l’intens...

PurposeThis chapter provides a critical discussion of air to rail mode substitution. Environmental impacts, intermodal competition and integration are considered, examining advantages and disadvantages as well as opportunities and constraints. OriginalityBoth operation and life-cycle analysis perspectives show that high-speed rail (HSR) is much ‘gr...

To date, relatively little is known about the nature of the demand for high-speed rail (HSR) soon after inauguration of the services, despite close to 50-year experience of HSR operation and 17 166 km of HSR network around the world. This is a real lacuna given the scale of HSR construction around the world, the amount of resources committed to it,...

This synopsis makes use of the data and analyses from the first two Cahiers de l’Observatoire de la mobilité of the Brussels-Capital Region, bringing up to date the synopsis from the Citizens’ Forum of Brussels published in 2009 and adding to it considerably. It provides a complete and detailed overview of this matter, which represents one of the R...

This synopsis makes use of the data and analyses from the first two Cahiers de l’Observatoire de la mobilité of the Brussels-Capital Region, bringing up to date the synopsis from the Citizens’ Forum of Brussels published in 2009 and adding to it considerably. It provides a complete and detailed overview of this matter, which represents one of the R...

This synopsis makes use of the data and analyses from the first two Cahiers de l’Observatoire de la mobilité of the Brussels-Capital Region, bringing up to date the synopsis from the Citizens’ Forum of Brussels published in 2009 and adding to it considerably. It provides a complete and detailed overview of this matter, which represents one of the R...

This paper analyzes the extent to which the liberalization of the airline market between the EU and Morocco has led to significant changes in both air services and leisure travel, thus contributing to the Moroccan tourist master plan to attract 10 million tourists. Liberalization has led to a large expansion of regular air services in terms of the...

Low-cost airlines (LCAs) have become essential actors supplying nationwide and continental air services. This paper focuses on the European case and investigates how the LCA spatial strategy has evolved since the last available comprehensive analysis in 2004. Using comprehensive data, the analysis is conducted at three levels: global, cities and ne...

Modal choice is determined by a whole range of factors that are interrelated to a larger or smaller extent. It is often the result of a very compound choice process that can take place consciously or unconsciously and that includes objective as well as subjective determinants. Despite its significance in our daily life, there is no uniform way to d...

This paper addresses the concern of data in line with transport geography. Focusing mainly on data availability, it highlights how data on both transport and spaces are important to transport geography. More and more data are becoming available on infrastructures and scheduled services, although often expensive, and on spaces. In contrast, non-sche...

While air to rail substitution is much discussed, in the literature and in the policy debate, there has still been no attempt to quantify the potential for such mode substitution in order to examine the extent to which High Speed Train (HST) might address the main problems faced by the air transport industry: the capacity shortage on the one hand a...

This article goes back over the debate which still remains to be settled and which divides the Brussels-Capital Region and the SNCB regarding the creation of new urban railway stations in the framework of the RER project. Our aim is to provide an objective (or at least methodologically transparent and clearly presented) assessment which is up to da...

This article goes back over the debate which still remains to be settled and which divides the Brussels-Capital Region and the SNCB regarding the creation of new urban railway stations in the framework of the RER project. Our aim is to provide an objective (or at least methodologically transparent and clearly presented) assessment which is up to da...

This article goes back over the debate which still remains to be settled and which divides the Brussels-Capital Region and the SNCB regarding the creation of new urban railway stations in the framework of the RER project. Our aim is to provide an objective (or at least methodologically transparent and clearly presented) assessment which is up to da...

This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of air services dynamics during the recent economic crisis. Through a regression analysis, we show that at the country scale, the change in the supply of seats is highly dependent on economic growth, confirming the cyclical nature of the air sector. Hence the crisis of air services has much more affected...

This article analyzes the issue of transfers within an urban public transport network as a factor which may make citizens’ journeys difficult or arduous. A critical analysis of the literature on transfers confirms that they are difficult for passengers and off-putting for those who must make modal choices. The article then presents an analysis of t...

This paper examines the determinants of air traffic volume in the major European urban regions, highlighting those that depend on the metropolitan features of cities. We used homogeneous urban and airline data that make international comparisons possible. We found that GDP, the level of economic decision-power, tourism functions, and the distance f...

Increasingly air transport growth raises the question of its impact on the environment. Public authorities and researchers are relying more and more on high-speed trains (HSTs), whose efficiency is supposed to lead to a modal shift from airplanes. However, most transport studies focus on the evolution of demand rather than supply, although it is ba...

This article looks into the names given by public authorities to underground stations in Brussels. If naming places can reflect political and ideological choices, naming underground stations supposes first of all helping travellers find their way within a - generally - preexisting urban fabric.In some cases, the toponimic identity of places is obvi...

La sélection de textes ici publiés nous semble être, à son échelle, un bon reflet de la géographie des transports telle qu’elle se conçoit aujourd’hui en France, avec ses caractéristiques propres, ses qualités, ses modes et ses manques. D’emblée, on est frappé de constater que, malgré tout son intérêt, la production scientifique de ce Belgeo est la...

Les métropoles sont les lieux privilégiés à partir desquels se structurent les échanges économiques mondiaux et où se localisent les acteurs internationaux. Dans la perspective de renforcer leur position dans la hiérarchie urbaine, la desserte aérienne représente pour elles un enjeu fondamental. Cet article vise ainsi à comparer et à comprendre la...

Metropolises are the focal places from which world economic exchanges are structured and where international actors are located. In regard to the objective of reinforcing their position in the urban hierarchy, air services represent an essential issue for metropolises. This paper aims at comparing and understanding the differentiation of air servic...

This paper examines the determinants of air traffic volume in the major European urban regions, distinguishing those that depend on the metropolitan features of cities from those that implement strategies pursued by airlines and governments. This distinction is made by drawing on the homogeneous data that make international comparisons possible. Th...

Only a few years ago European low-cost service was almost exclusively focused on Western Europe. However, the enlargement of the European Union to East Central Europe has brought with it an expansion of the liberalised air space, thereby offering new opportunities for service to Community airlines. Low-cost air service has since diversified in favo...

La libéralisation du transport aérien européen a accru la tendance des grandes compagnies à prendre des parts dans des compagnies de taille plus modeste tout en diversifiant les motivations. Dans ce contexte, les réseaux aériens des secondes évoluent en fonction des intérêts des premières et sous la contrainte de la rentabilité financière. Les cons...

The liberalisation of European airspace opened up unprecedented freedoms to Community airlines. This theoretically allows for increased competition. This article inquires into the quantification and the geography of the services offered in Europe that enjoy competition. Undoubtedly, competition appears to have increased but has certainly not become...

Until a few years ago, European low-cost air travel supply was almost entirely centred on Western Europe. However, the EU enlargement to East Central Europe has widened the liberalized space, offering airlines from the West and the East new service opportunities. Consequently, low-cost supply has diversified to the benefit of West-East connections...

At a time when mobility in Brussels is becoming increasingly critical from the standpoints of the environment and efficiency, this article gives a detailed and exhaustive analysis of the geography of traffic conditions affecting the trams and buses of Brussels’ main mass transit network. The finely disaggregated data that we were able to obtain fro...

At a time when mobility in Brussels is becoming increasingly critical from the standpoints of the environment and efficiency, this article gives a detailed and exhaustive analysis of the geography of traffic conditions affecting the trams and buses of Brussels’ main mass transit network. The finely disaggregated data that we were able to obtain fro...

At a time when mobility in Brussels is becoming increasingly critical from the standpoints of the environment and efficiency, this article gives a detailed and exhaustive analysis of the geography of traffic conditions affecting the trams and buses of Brussels’ main mass transit network. The finely disaggregated data that we were able to obtain fro...

The Brussels Airport is located at the city gates and thus poses the problem of aircraft nuisances, daytime as well as overnight. Depending on balance of power between authorities, between pressure groups or between authorities and pressure groups, air procedures frequently have changed in order to avoid one or another district. Our research first...

Michel Hubert is doctor in de sociologie en hoogleraar aan de Facultés universi-taires Saint-Louis (FUSL), waar hij het Institut de recherches interdisciplinaires sur Bruxelles (IRIB) voorzit en het Centre d'études sociologiques leidt. Hij focust zijn research op specifiek Brusselse problemen, waaronder op de eerste plaats mobili-teit. Hij heeft ge...

Depuis plus d’une décennie, le transport aérien intra-européen est libéralisé. Les compagnies communautaires se sont ainsi vu offrir une liberté d’accès au marché et peuvent donc organiser leurs réseaux comme bon leur semble. Cependant, il leur faut parallèlement être rentables car les financements publics sont en principe interdits. Ce livre revie...