Managing the drone revolution: A systematic literature review into the current use of airborne drones and future strategic directions for their effective control.

Commercial and private deployment of airborne drones is revolutionising many ecosystems. To identify critical issues and research gaps, our systematic literature review findings suggest that historic issues such as privacy, acceptance and security are increasingly replaced by operational considerations including interaction with and impacts on other airspace users. Recent incidents show that unrestricted drone use can inflict problems on other airspace users like airports and emergency services. Our review of current regulatory approaches shows a need for further policy and management response to both manage rapid and efficient drone usage growth, and facilitate innovation (e.g. intraurban package delivery), with one promising strategic response being low altitude airspace management (LAAM) systems for all drone use cases.

Cost structure effects of horizontal airline mergers and acquisitions.

The purpose of this research is to test the ex-post cost structure effects in horizontal mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Our proposed methodology quantifies cost structure effects empirically to inform competition policy around M&As in the airline industry. The results show that horizontal M&As involving unprofitable firms significantly reduce variable costs and increase fixed costs ex-post. M&As involving only profitable firms show no significant impact on the cost structure. We offer support that the ex-post cost structure effects of airline M&As depend on the incentives to improve efficiency, reflected in the ex-ante performance of the merging firms. We further argue that market behavior may not just depend on market structure but cost structures too, all of which should be accounted for in antitrust decision making and regulation around airline M&As.

What can we learn from the JATM literature for the future of aviation post Covid-19? - A bibliometric and visualization analysis.

This paper aims to draw lessons from retrospectively evaluating the evolution of the air transport discipline right up to the COVID-19 outbreak through the Journal of Air Transport Management (JATM), the main scholarly air transportation journal globally. As such, this study deploys a comprehensive bibliometric analysis and graphical mapping of the JATM knowledge body through CiteSpace visualization of 1483 JATM papers from 2001 to 2019. Our results suggest that while the industry has experienced pandemics and economic crises in the past, both were not dominant in influencing JATM literature neither in frequency nor in impact. That said, recovery, crisis and disruption are important key words in JATM papers not just in regard to safety and economic crisis management but increasingly also related to health concerns with recent key papers published in the pandemic and recovery management context which may have helped the industry dealing with the current crisis as well as current JATM papers on this topic assisting with preparing for a transitioning out of COVID-19 world.

Ultra Long-Haul: An emerging business model accelerated by COVID-19.

The COVID-19 outbreak has sent shockwaves throughout the aviation industry, sending a myriad of liquidity-strapped airlines into administration or part government ownership. In turn, this paper argues that the novel phenomenon of Ultra Long Haul (ULH) operations already maintains the necessary characteristics to generate a competitive advantage that will not only succeed, but outperform other business models, in a post COVID-19 era. Our modelling and scenario analysis results suggest that point-to-point ULH services, with access to a strong domestic feeder system, will not only require minimal adjustments to cope with COVID-19, but will simultaneously produce higher seat-load factors and yields, heightened network flexibility, and unique health benefits tied to its ability to bypass densely populated hub airports.