The urban metabolism of airline passengers: Scaling and sustainability.

Concerns about the negative externalities of air transport suggest it is important to consider the sustainability of growth in demand for air transport. However, there is little agreement on how the sustainability of demand should be evaluated. In this paper, I draw on the extensive literature on al...

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Published in:Urban Studies (Sage Publications, Ltd.) Vol. 55; no. 1; pp. 212 - 226
Main Author: Neal, Zachary P.
Format: Article
Published: Sage Publications, Ltd. Jan2018
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      dt: Jan2018
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        atl: The urban metabolism of airline passengers: Scaling and sustainability.
      aug:
        au: Neal, Zachary P.
        affil: Michigan State University, USA
      su:
        United States
        Economic demand
        Urban growth
        Metropolitan areas
        Cities & towns
        Commercial aeronautics
        Sustainability
        Air travelers
      sug:
        subj:
          Economic demand
          Urban growth
          Metropolitan areas
          Cities & towns
          United States
          Non-scheduled specialty flying services
          Nonscheduled Chartered Passenger Air Transportation
          Scheduled Freight Air Transportation
          Scheduled Passenger Air Transportation
          Scheduled air transportation
          Land Subdivision
          Commercial aeronautics
          Sustainability
          Air travelers
      keyword:
        air travel
        metabolism
        scaling
        sustainability
        USA
        可持续性
        新陈代谢
        缩放
        美国
        航空
        air travel
        metabolism
        scaling
        sustainability
        USA
        可持续性
        新陈代谢
        缩放
        美国
        航空
      ab: Concerns about the negative externalities of air transport suggest it is important to consider the sustainability of growth in demand for air transport. However, there is little agreement on how the sustainability of demand should be evaluated. In this paper, I draw on the extensive literature on allometric scaling in biology, which examines animals’ demand for calories, to provide a novel framework for evaluating the sustainability of cities’ demand for air transport service. Viewing cities as analogous to organisms and airline passengers as analogous to life-sustaining resources, I focus on two questions. First, at what rate do cities metabolise passengers, that is, how many airline passengers does it take to fuel a city of a given size? Second, does this metabolic rate differ for business and leisure passengers, which represent different kinds of urban resources? Using data on airline passenger movement between 103 US metropolitan areas in each year from 1993 through 2011, I find that cities demand airline passengers in proportion to their population size, but when viewed separately, demand for business passengers as a function of city size is much lower than for leisure passengers. Moreover, I find that these patterns have remained relatively stable over the last two decades. The findings suggest that considering passenger type is important in evaluating the sustainability of air transport and the capacity of the air transport system to support cities’ continued growth.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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