讲座题目：Travel Choice, Online Meeting and Privacy Concerns - Addressing challenges to the aviation industry by modelling passenger behaviours

主讲人：符啸文 教授  香港理工大学

讲座时间：6月 17日上午9：30-10：30

讲座地点：电子科技大学清水河校区6号科研楼A461

主讲人简介：符啸文博士是香港理工大学工业与系统工程系教授及系主任。他的主要研究方向为运输经济与管理，涵盖的领域包括竞争政策和政府管制，生产率比较计算，运输需求模型和产业组织研究等。这些研究的主要对象包括航空和航海产业。符教授是超过20个课题的主负责人，研究方向包括生产率研究，网络规划发展，航空公司机场垂直协议，企业竞争，产品差异化研究，运输需求分析，开放天空和航空自由化等。符教授至今发表了100多篇期刊论文，主编了7个期刊特刊。他是Case Studies on Transport Policy期刊的主编，多个期刊的编委，同时是系列书籍 “Advances in Airlines Economics” (Emerald) 的副主编和该系列第7卷的主编。符教授给多个企业和政府组织提供了咨询，包括波音（商用）飞机，新西兰商业委员会，澳大利亚竞争和消费者委员会，加拿大英属不列颠哥伦比亚省运输部，澳大利亚竞争法庭，香港运输及房屋局，日本铁道，香港民航局，大湾区航空，国际经合组织等。他是香港理工大学行为与知识工程研究院总监，国际航空运输研究协会（科研）副主席，英国航空研究所（科研）副主席、国际运输会议航运经济和政策学部创始主席，联合国贸易和发展会议产能指数技术和统计工作组成员，香港地方志专家小组（航空卷目）成员，悉尼大学商学院荣誉教授。

 讲座内容：This talk empirically identifies business travellers’ preferences during the COVID-19 pandemic across different regions. A stated preference study was conducted during April to June 2021 on respondents in the U.S., the city of Shanghai in mainland China and Hong Kong. Generalised mixed multinomial logit (GMXL) models are estimated incorporating attributes of travel characteristics, severity levels of the pandemic, and health control measures at the airport. When an online meeting is inapplicable, respondents from Shanghai and Hong Kong highly value heath control measures, and are not sensitive to the time spent at airport health checkpoints. In comparison, U.S. respondents are averse to the time spent for health check, the reporting of personal information, travel history, symptoms, and the requirements of compulsory mask wearing and onsite sample testing. However, when online meeting is applicable, all the respondents show no appreciation for health control measures, while the U.S. respondents are twice more averse to the time spent at airport health checkpoints. Online meeting reduces the intention of international business travel amid the pandemic for passengers in Shanghai and Hong Kong, but imposes no significant effects on U.S. travellers. Such significant heterogeneity in traveller preference partly explains the different recovery patterns observed in various aviation markets, and justifies individualized travel arrangements and service priority in fulfilling pandemic control requirements across different regions. Our study also suggests that there are commonly accepted areas for global cooperation such as the sharing of vaccination record, and the option of online meeting calls for convenient travel arrangements amid pandemic to all countries.

讲座题目：Impacts of a Sustainable Aviation Fuel Mandate on Airline Competition--- Full-service carrier vs. low-cost carrier

主讲人：王焜 助理教授  香港理工大学

讲座时间：6月 17日上午10:30-11:30

讲座地点：电子科技大学清水河校区6号科研楼A461

主讲人简介：王焜博士现为香港理工大学工业及系统及工程学系助理教授。曾在对外经济贸易大学担任长聘副教授。王焜博士的研究兴趣包括运输与物流管理，重点关注航空运营与管理、交通环境问题、多式联运竞争与合作。发表了80多篇SSCI/SCI期刊论文，其中近30篇发表在交通运输权威期刊，如《Transportation Research Part A/B/C/D/E》，还发表在知名经济学期刊上《International Journal of Industrial and Organization》、《Energy Economics》、《Journal of Transport Economics and Policy》。他的研究工作被广泛引用，谷歌学术引用超过3000次，其中13篇文章被选入ESI高被引论文。他在2023年获得了斯坦福大学评选的“全球前2%的科学家”称号。王焜博士还担任《Transport Policy》（SSCI JCRQ1）的编辑和《Transportation Research Part A》、《Transportation Research Part D》（SSCI, JCRQ1）等多个期刊的编委。

 讲座内容：The aviation industry has proposed the collective goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. In addition to the existing market-based mechanisms, the use of renewable energies, in particular, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), could be one of the most promising means of for achieving this long-term target. This paper investigates how an SAF mandate from the government can lead to heterogeneous impacts on two types of airlines, namely, full-service carriers (FSCs) and low-cost carriers (LCCs), that compete in the same markets. A game-theoretic economic model is constructed that accounts for the different service quality levels and cost structures (i.e., fuel efficiency) between FSCs and LCCs. Our analytical results suggest that the SAF mandate favors LCCs over FSCs. The share of SAF blended into fuel raises the airfares of both types of airlines while reducing the traffic and profit of FSCs. The impacts on the LCC traffic and profit depend on its fuel efficiency relative to that of FSC. When LCCs are sufficiently fuel efficient, the SAF mandate can increase their traffic and profit. We also examine how air passengers’ environmental awareness affects the outcomes of SAF mandate implementation. Our economic model also accounts for passengers’ heterogeneous preferences in terms of service quality and price sensitivity. Overall, this study suggests that the SAF mandate could provide a competitive edge for LCCs against FSCs.