Drivers and barriers for relocation of freight operators to smaller airports

Air freight sector has been a growing market worldwide for many years. The rapid growth of scheduled freight aircraft services in particular has been a remarkable feature of the international airline industry during the past decades. Air freight traffic has grown faster than passenger traffic and the production of goods has become more dependent upon air freight services that link global supply chains together. Air transportation is useful when the goods must be delivered quickly and it also allows for more flexible hub-and-spoke networking structures, which are able to offset some of the problems of indirect flows. The concept of developing regional air-cargo centres can be seen from many different perspectives. The most important factors in airport location selection are connectivity to existing road and rail transport networks and current or potential freight traffic volumes. Right location allows firms to develop their own resources, consolidate their competitive position and nurture their growth. Once the company has located it is hard to relocate, so that is why the location decision has to be made carefully. Purpose: The main purpose of this thesis was to reveal the key factors, either positive or negative, which can affect the decision of air freight operators to relocate their express services to smaller airports. Methodology: The chosen method for this thesis was the mono method because the data collection technique was qualitative. Based on that interviews, the authors finalized their topic and their research questions and built question lists, one for the Jönköping airport (Axamo), one for the companies that already operate in Jönköping airport and one for companies that do not operate there. The authors decided to have semistructured interviews with all the interviewees in order to cover the different themes of their research. Findings: The main findings from analysing the empirical data revealed that there are many different positive and negative factors that can affect the decision making for relocation of freight operators. The most important that were identified concern the airport’s infrastructure, location, quality of provided services, number of passenger flights and price policy. Moreover, the weather conditions at the region, the customers’ demand and connectivity with road and rail networks are also very influential.