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Subject: search.filters.subject.350901 Air transportation and freight services

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    Investigating the impacts of aviation subsidies on regional wellbeing in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Aviation at Massey University, Manawatū Campus, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2022) Wu, Hanjun
    Air transport plays an important role in maintaining regional connectivity and accessibility, which links geographically dispersed areas of New Zealand. The regional aviation subsidy policy vacuum in New Zealand highlights the need to understand the relationship between aviation subsidies and regional wellbeing outcomes. The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated economies and many sectors worldwide, including the aviation industry, which has also amplified the challenges for smaller, financially fragile regional airlines and airports in New Zealand. Therefore, this PhD thesis aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the inter-relationships among aviation subsidies, air transport activity, and regional wellbeing by investigating the case of New Zealand. Chapter 1 systematically reviews the prior literature and publications for obtaining a better understanding of how aviation subsidies and their relationship with regional wellbeing have been researched, which provide an initial foundation for the other chapters in this thesis. The findings highlight the effects of aviation subsidies on various facets of regional wellbeing and imply that the full picture of aviation subsidies’ impacts on regional wellbeing remains uncertain. Chapter 2 delineates stakeholders’ perspectives and opinions about the key air transport and regional wellbeing indicators that need to be considered for designing and implementing aviation subsidies. The findings highlight the necessity of integrating economic and social wellbeing into regional subsidy policy design and implementation. Chapter 3 analyses the inter-relationships among aviation subsidies (i.e. airport subsidies), air transport activity, and regional wellbeing during the pre-COVID era. The findings indicate that the provision of airport subsidies benefited smaller and remote airports/regions and stimulated airline services, thereby promoting regional economic prosperity. Moreover, the results suggest that airport authorities in New Zealand should form stronger partnerships and coordinate with policymakers to ensure that airport subsidies are factored into their policies for regional economic development. Chapter 4 examines aviation subsidies’ impacts on regional air passenger flows during the post-COVID lockdown period. It was found that airline subsidies under a trial national aviation funding scheme (i.e. the Essential Transport Connectivity (ETC) scheme) positively impacted regional air travel during the post-COVID lockdown period. Overall, the four chapters of this thesis contribute to the air transport literature on the aviation subsidy‒regional wellbeing nexus, and also offer policy insights to establish a national aviation subsidy framework in the post-COVID-19 era.
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    The influence of confirmation bias on the decision making of emergency services pilots : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment for the degree of Master of Aviation at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2022) Browne, Matthew
    Pilots of emergency services aircraft face complex, challenging, and life and death situations on a regular basis as part of their roles. The purpose of this research was to investigate how confirmation bias may influence pilots to make potentially unsafe decisions. Confirmation bias has previously been found to adversely affect decision quality in several areas of aviation. 101 emergency services pilots participated in this research by using an online tool which presented them with three scenarios representative of the types of situations they encounter in their line of work. After each of the scenarios, participants were asked four questions: their willingness to fly the specific scenario, whether a confirmatory factor influenced their decision, and how confident they were in their previous two answers. The findings suggested high levels of confirmation bias across all participants. Whilst the criticality of the scenario presented did not provide a statistically significant difference in the level of confirmation bias of participants, the total number of missions participants decided to fly, and their total emergency services flight hours, did. The findings overall suggest that confirmation bias may adversely affect emergency services pilots’ decision-making, leading them to decide to fly based on an unrealistically positive appraisal of information relevant to making a decision. The findings were broadly consistent with prior research on confirmation bias and aviation decision making and appeared to provide a framework for understanding a number of previous fatal accidents of emergency services aircraft. The main limitation was use of hypothetical scenarios, rather than real life ones, due to ethical and practical implications of conducting this research on real-life missions.
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    Extended reality (xR) flight simulators as an adjunct to traditional flight training methods : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Aviation at Massey University, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2022) Ross, Glen A
    Over the next 20 years, it is predicted that an additional 760,000 new pilots will be needed to meet the growing demands of the global aviation industry. With current training capability, this may be difficult to achieve. A potential means of improving the efficiency and lowering the cost of flight training is to use extended reality (xR) in place of traditional flight simulators and aircraft. Two studies are reported, each of which investigated the use of extended reality in flight training. First, a scoping review was conducted to synthesise existing studies. Second, two focus groups, involving 10 flight instructors, were conducted to gauge opinion toward the use of xR technology in flight training. Following synthesis and thematic analysis of the data sets, both studies revealed evidence that xR technology has the potential to be successfully employed in flight training, saving time and money, whilst also enabling increased training capability, although some potential limitations were identified. The interest in this technology, combined with evidence pointing to its potential usefulness in flight training suggests that further examination in this area by academia and industry is warranted.
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    Identifying challenges of aviation growth within the South Pacific region : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Aviation at Massey University, Manawatū Campus, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2022) Salesi, Vinolia Kilinaivoni
    The aviation and tourism industries are major cornerstones of economic and social development within the South Pacific Region (SPR). The SPR is a tourism-dependent region with air transport as the primary mode of transport for inbound tourists, given its geographical isolation from the rest of the world. Despite the importance of the aviation industry for the tourism sector and economic development within the SPR, there are continual challenges for the aviation industry within the SPR to grow and be sustainable. This PhD thesis investigates three key and related challenges facing the aviation industry within the SPR during different stages of the COVID-19 era. Chapter 1 examines the effects of the aviation sector on tourism growth within the SPR via econometric estimation for data collected from 2008 to 2018. It was found that the aviation industry has positively influenced tourism growth within the SPR, which justified government support for aviation and tourism growth during the pre-COVID-era. Chapter 2 explores the perspectives of stakeholders on aviation subsidy programmes within the SPR through interviews and thematic analysis amid COVID-19 era. It was found that the SPR countries’ aviation sectors are heavily reliant on aviation subsidies to operate and develop, but may also be subject to political influence and misuse. Because of the scale of the problem, it was noted that the SPR governments could not provide sufficient support for aviation operators during the COVID-19 pandemic. Chapter 3 systematically reviews the literature and publications (2010‒2021) regarding the strategies for mitigating and controlling the impacts of pandemics on the air transport and tourism sectors during the post-COVID-19 era. The findings highlighted the importance of travel-related policies and measures (e.g., border closures and travel restrictions, quarantine and isolation, hygiene measures, virus testing, contact tracing, airport screening and other measures) for mitigating and controlling future pandemics that may happen within the SPR. Overall, the three empirical studies comprising this PhD thesis contribute to the aviation and tourism literature of a under-researched region (SPR) by providing insights from multiple dimensions, including international inbound tourism, aviation subsidies, travel-related policies and measures for future pandemics. It also provides evidence-based policymaking, pragmatic and practical insights for policymakers and industry stakeholders to develop the SPR’s aviation, tourism and economies
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    Analysing air passenger flows between New Zealand's smaller regions and Australia : a gravity model : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Aviation at Massey University,Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2020) Flatley, Tobias
    Due to the geographic location of Australia and New Zealand, air transport is the dominant mode of travel between the two nations and to and from the rest of the world. While the trans-Tasman air passenger market between the two countries has grown over the last 20 years, direct air routes to Australian destinations from New Zealand's regional cities of Dunedin, Hamilton and Palmerston North have seen a major decline and, in most cases, the complete closure of those routes. This study uses the two-stage least squares (2SLS) gravity model to investigate the determinants of air passenger numbers on eight sampled city-pair routes. Empirical results show that for these trans-Tasman markets, expanded seat capacity has a strong positive impact on air passenger numbers. A longer driving time to travel to the nearest alternative international airport, the 2008/09 GFC and the winter season in New Zealand are also associated with an increase in air passenger numbers. In contrast, the presence of full-service network carriers has a negative impact on air passenger numbers. These findings have some important policy implications for stakeholders.