Airport choice and flight connectivity among domestic and international passengers - Empirical analysis using passenger movement survey data in Japan

This paper presents an empirical analysis of airport choice and passenger movement on international flights from local cities in Japan to Narita and Haneda Airports in the Tokyo metropolitan area. This is the first study to evaluate airport choice behavior in Japan empirically by using the micro data collected by Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in 2010 (i.e., when time slots for international long-haul flights were first assigned at Haneda). The analysis confirms that flight connectivity is a crucial element in airport choice.Further, Japanese airlines and their associated alliances are able to attract passengers arriving from local cities by using Haneda airport. Above all, we find that the introduction of long-haul international flights from Haneda has met the needs of a number of passengers arriving from local cities in Japan owing to the convenience of the domestic flight network, especially for business purpose passengers.