The origin–destination airport choice for all-cargo aircraft operations in Europe

•The airport choice process and airport choice factors are presented.•Different logit models are built based on responses from 26 airlines.•The presence of passenger operations at an airport is not a significant factor.•Overall, the presence of forwarders turns out to be the most important factor.•Airlines’ preferences vary with regard to the different choice factors.

In this paper, we analyze the origin–destination airport choice for freighter operations of combination and all-cargo carriers in Europe. First, we discuss the choice process of airlines qualitatively. Next, using a stated choice experiment, we show that the presence of forwarders at an airport is the primary factor in explaining airlines’ choices, especially for airlines serving main airports. For airlines primarily serving regional airports, the possibility for night-time flights is most important. Finally, the presence of passenger operations at an airport is not a significant factor and the level of origin–destination demand is of limited importance.