UGPTI to Study Commercial Airline Fares

The Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute is studying and evaluating the pricing behavior of commercial airlines operating in small and medium communities. UGPTI will assess airline-pricing behavior to find the reasons there are differences in fares across markets.

There are 370 small to medium-size metropolitan areas in the United States, accounting for 22.3 percent of the population. These cities have a population of 400,000 or fewer, and are also called second-tier cities. In addition to representing a significant portion of the population, these cities serve as major service centers for rural America.

Rural America may represent an opportunity for economic expansion - an alternative to already congested major metropolitan areas. Small and medium cities are generally less costly than larger areas. Economic growth cannot happen without adequate air service at reasonable prices.

In evaluating this important issue, UGPTI will include:

• A comprehensive survey and review of literature related to airline pricing
• A careful examination of airline pricing behavior nationwide, with segregation by market types and the number and types of airlines serving various markets.
• Development of a detailed, theoretically sound, and testable economic model to explain airline pricing behavior
• Development and estimation of econometric models to test the hypotheses developed by the economic model, and
• A summary of results, along with a discussion of the implications of UGPTI findings for desirable policies that maximize social welfare.

This is the first such study by UGPTI.

ATAC Researchers Embrace New Focus Area

The Advanced Traffic Analysis Center (ATAC) Work Program has been approved by the Federal Highway Administration and covers activities through late 2003. ATAC is working with the North Dakota Department of Transportation (NDDOT) on several major projects including facilitating the development of a Traffic Operation Center (TOC) in Fargo, N.D., as well as supporting other Intelligent Transportation Systems initiatives across the state.

ATAC Director Ayman Smadi says they are extremely excited about the relationship with NDDOT, as well as local partners in the Fargo-Moorhead (Minn.), Grand Forks and Bismarck, N.D., areas. These areas, he notes, are making great strides toward modernizing their traffic control and traveler information systems.

By late spring 2001, ATAC began working with state and local partners to establish a new focus area that provides travel demand modeling support for NDDOT and North Dakota Metropolitan Planning Organizations. The primary focus in the short-term will be to support modeling needs in North Dakota, using enhancements to the Fargo-Moorhead MPO as the focal point of this effort. The ultimate goal for this program is to develop a resource for transportation planning modeling suited for small-medium size urban areas. Specifically, this program will:

• Support MPO transportation planning model improvements
• Ensure consistency across North Dakota in travel demand/transportation plans development
• Explore potential applications of new modeling tools or systems
• Facilitate greater institutional cooperation by providing a neutral source for modeling expertise
• Provide training opportunities on developing and improving transportation planning models
• Increase the number of qualified civil engineering students who can fill transportation planning positions in North Dakota, including at the NDDOT, MPOs and consulting engineering firms.

ATAC Moving

Another major initiative is the ATAC move to Hastings Hall at NDSU, just across the street from UGPTI and across the foyer from the North Dakota Department of Transportation Support Center (DOTSC). The new space will provide ATAC with a more integrated space, including a spacious training room with stateof-the-art equipment and a more open Traffic Lab with increased work areas, as well as office space for ATAC research staff. The move, Smadi says, could not have come at a better time because ATAC is preparing to host even more training programs.

Student Numbers Growing

Student numbers continue to grow along with their contributions. ATAC students who are active in the ITE Student Chapter at NDSU, attended the Annual ITE Meeting in Chicago and had an opportunity to learn and to interact with their peers. Recognizing the interdisciplinary approach to transportation problems, ATAC prides itself on having students from such diverse backgrounds as civil engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, business and communication. Electrical engineering students are working to develop a cost-effective controller-interface-device part of their senior design project.

Contact ATAC

Smadi encourages people to become familiar with the ATAC program and utilize its resources. ATAC is developing a library of selected reports, studies and links, most pertaining to small-to-medium size cities. Please visit www.atacenter.org often.