Ricerc@Sapienza

Over the last years, there has been increasing evidence of cooperation between airlines and high-speed rail (HSR) operators, with many intermodal agreements signed worldwide. Indeed, air transport and HSR services can be complements on long-haul routes served by connecting flights through a hub airport.
Airline-HSR agreements have received political support in Europe to promote transport intermodality, but the impact of such agreements on passengers is not clear-cut. Actually, intermodal cooperation increases product variety, but raises competition concerns since it involves coordinated pricing. One should also consider the role of congestion at hub airports, since traffic volumes in hub-and-spoke networks are affected by the airlines¿ decision on how to allocate scarce slots among markets which, in turn, depends on airport landing fees.
In this framework, the issues at stake are very important:
i) What are the main factors affecting transport operators¿ incentives to sign intermodal agreements, both on the demand side (e.g. mode substitution) and the supply side (e.g. sunk costs of cooperation)?
ii) What is the role played by relevant stakeholders, such as airport companies and the government, in facilitating or dampening such agreements?
iii) If price coordination benefits firms, are there any forms of airline-HSR cooperation (with varying degrees of integration) that improve consumer surplus and remove antitrust concerns?
iv) Are private and collective interests aligned and, if not, which policies promote intermodal agreements when desirable?
This research intends to shed light on these issues. The expected outcomes are:
i) An assessment of the benefits and costs of intermodal agreements for transport operators, airports, and passengers;
ii) An analysis of the key factors influencing transport operators¿ and airports¿ strategies, as well as market outcomes;
iii) The development of guidelines to assist policy makers in dealing with intermodal agreements.