Achim I. Czerny - Böcker

The Belt and Road initiative is marketed by the Chinese government as the "twenty-first century maritime Silk Road� and the "Silk Road economic belt�. The initiative encourages policy coordination, trade facilitation, financial integration, and transport connectivity. The Belt and Road initiative covers at least 65 countries across Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe, involving 70% of the global population, 75% of world energy reserves and 55% of world GNP. Such an initiative is expected to bring significant impacts to the transport and logistics industry in the regions involved. The transport and logistics sector not only directly contributes to the production of transport and logistics services, but also provides essential inputs to other sectors such as tourism, trade, infrastructure investment and management. Therefore, it is important to jointly analyse the implications of the Belt and Road initiative to the transport and logistics sectors, the best strategies and operation practices that the industry can pursue, and the right government policies that should be implemented in relation to the initiative.��

This volume will be the first in Elsevier's China Transportation Series, from series editor Paul Tae-Woo Lee. If you are interested in writing or editing for the series, please contact Dr. Lee: paultaewoo.lee@zju.edu.cn.

Reviews the historical development and current status of the transport and logistics industries in the markets covered by the Belt and Road initiative and identifies the determinants of market performances and industry policies Models the market mechanisms and firms' decision-making patterns so that the effects of alternative business strategies and industry policies can be evaluated, helping stakeholders to identify the business opportunities brought by the Belt and Road initiative and predict the associated implications and policy changes related to the transport and logistics industry Brings together studies on important issues that may have inter-related effects and influences by: analysing different modes of transport and logistics services (e.g. maritime and inland river transport, aviation, rail, and road transports); investigating both regional and international markets that are covered by the Belt and Road initiatives, with a focus on Europe, China and Northeast Asia;�and studying important issues related to business strategies, government regulation, social welfare and firm performances

Over the past several decades, commercial air traffic has been growing at a far greater rate than airport capacity, causing airports to become increasingly congested. How can we accommodate this increased traffic and at the same time alleviate traffic delays resulting from congestion? The response outside the US has been to set a maximum number of slots and use administrative procedures to allocate these among competing airlines, with the most important consideration being 'grandfather rights' to existing carriers. The United States, on the other hand, has used administrative procedures to allocate slots at only four airports. In all other cases, flights have been handled on a first-come, first-served basis, with aircraft queuing for the privilege of landing or taking off from a congested airport. While recognizing the advantages of slot systems in lessening delays, economists have criticized both approaches as being sub-optimal, and have advocated procedures such as slot auctions, peak-load pricing and slot trading to better utilize congested airports. Edited by an international team of air transport economists and drawing on an impressive list of contributors, Airport Slots provides an extremely comprehensive treatment of the subject. It considers the methods currently used to allocate slots and applies economic analysis to each. The book then explains various schemes to increase public welfare by taxing or pricing congestion, and describes alternate slot-allocation schemes, most notably slot auctions. In addition, Airport Slots outlines the complexities involved in slot-allocation methods, including the requirement for multiple slots - a take-off slot at London Heathrow is useless unless there is a landing slot available at Frankfurt for a London Frankfurt flight. Finally, the book explores the economic pitfalls of slot-allocation schemes; for example, controls may not be required if external delay costs are internalized by a dominant carrier at its hub. Airport Slots provides a valuable contribution to the debate on how best to limit airport congestion. The book's comprehensive treatment of the subject matter provides the reader with a 'one-stop' volume to explore airport congestion and slot-allocation schemes, offering valuable insights to academics and practitioners alike.