آیا حمل و نقل هوایی یک ضرورت برای شمول اجتماعی و توسعه اقتصادی است؟

Aviation policy makers are faced with the challenge of facilitating growing air travel in such a way that it meets environment objectives and the need to provide socially necessary air services. Various incentives have been offered to encourage the launch of new air routes or sustain existing services, such as public service obligations and the Route Development Fund. This paper provides an overview of an independent evaluation of the funding mechanism in Scotland and highlights the difficulties faced analysing the effects of the scheme and challenges faced by policy makers in making robust policy intervention decisions, given the uncertainty surrounding their effects. The results suggest that the Fund has significantly increased passenger flows and travel conditions for business and leisure passengers, and increased the gross value added impact to the wider Scottish economy.

With the rising chorus of calls for policy makers to implement measures to reduce the demand for air travel it might appear perverse for Governments to be seen to promote air transport. One consequence of deregulating Europe's airline industry has been the need to provide direct subsidies to ensure the continuation of air services to remote communities, previously cross-subsidised by profits from busier routes of the same airline. This situation was brought to an end by the introduction of the EU “Third Package” in 1993 and its extension to domestic services in 1997 (Williams, 2005). Policy makers addressing the needs of more remote regions are faced with conflicting pressures to provide opportunities for air travel. Provisions exist for EU governments to tender air services which are deemed to be socially necessary but are not provided commercially. The package of measures also includes provision for the member states to impose ‘public service obligations’ on low-density routes which were deemed necessary for the purposes of economic and regional development (Reynolds-Feighan, 1995a). In the UK this has been a feature of policy for many years for markets that focus on socially necessary services. The designation of Public Service Obligation (PSO) status has become increasingly common in Europe since 1993 following establishment of the Essential Air Services (EAS) was introduced in the US in 1978. Provisions exist for governments to tender for air services deemed socially necessary which cannot be provided commercially. Within the European Union these are subject to rules on subsidies to air transport.