3rd GARS Online Panel Discussion

Topic: Covid-19 and African Aviation Panellists (in Alphabetical Order): • Joan Miquel Vilardell ALG Global • Sanjeev Gadhia Founder & CEO Astral Aviation Ltd • Ogaga Udjo Managing Director ZA Logics Moderator • Andrew Charlton Aviation Advocacy, Geneva The 3rd GARS Online Panel Discussion was held on 4 June 2020 in 3rd Workshop on “Aviation in Africa”. The Panel of experts, moderated by Andrew Charlton, held a panel discussion regarding Covid-19 and African Aviation, at both a passenger and cargo level. A wide range of topics were debated, including the structure and status of African aviation – across different regions – prior Covid-19. The panel further discussed dynamics currently experienced within the African aviation context due to Covid-19, and respectively opined on what the future may possibly look like, in terms of market structure and ownership. The recording of Online Panel Discussion is available now.

HKSOA Student Exchange Scholarship 2020/21 – Open for Application

HKSOA Student Exchange Scholarship 2020/21 is now open for application. Value of Award: The value of award depends on the destinations which are listed below: Destinations Value of Scholarship for one semester (HKD) Chinese Mainland, Taiwan and Macau 15,000 Other Asian destinations 18,000 Non-Asian destinations 20,000 Eligibility: Outbound exchange students enrolled on BBA (Hons) in International Shipping and Transport Logistics offered by the Department of Logistics and Maritime Studies (LMS). Priority will be given to the LMS students who study in some maritime related programmes, or who take maritime related subjects in the collaborating universities in Semester 1 or 2 of 2020/21. The outbound exchange recipients of the scholarships are not allowed to hold other exchange scholarship(s) concurrently. However, they are allowed to receive subsidies from PolyU which cover part of the expenses of the exchange programme. Selection Criteria: The scholarships are awarded to students who have strong interest in maritime studies and developing career in shipping and maritime fields. The scholarships are awarded to students on the basis of applicants’ academic merit, extent of involvement in extra-curricular activities, community services and interview performance (if any). The applications will be forwarded to the Donor for final selection. Application: Details please refer to the flyer. To apply, please submit the application form to LMS General Office (M628) on or before 22 June 2020 (Monday).

2nd GARS Online Panel Discussion

Topic: The Coronavirus Outbreak & Aviation Bailouts: Pragmatism, Policy, Politics Panellists (in Alphabetical Order): • Peter Forsyth Monash University, Melbourne • Cathal Guiomard Dublin City University, Ireland • Peter Lewisch University of Vienna, Law School, Vienna • Brian Pearce International Air Transport Association (IATA), Geneva • Mike Tretheway InterVISTAS, Vancouver Moderator: • Andrew Charlton Aviation Advocacy, Geneva The 2nd GARS Online Panel Discussion was held on 27 May 2020. The Panel focused particularly on airline bailouts. It is clear that bailouts can take a number of different forms. Concerns were raised that the market would be distorted by indiscriminate bailouts. Further, there was concern that much of the hard-won industry reform of the last two decades is now at risk of being reversed in the space of two quarters. Whilst there are valid reasons and valid forms for focused bailouts, more work is required to ensure that bailouts do not create more longer-term issues than they resolve. The recording of Online Panel Discussion is available now.

Public Online Seminar: Airline Mitigation of Propagated Delays via Schedule Buffers: Theory and Empirics by Prof. Jan K. BRUECKNER (7 May 2020)

Title: Airline Mitigation of Propagated Delays via Schedule Buffers: Theory and Empirics Speaker: Prof. Jan K. Brueckner, Distinguished Professor, Department of Economics, University of California, Irvine Date: 7 May 2020 Abstract: This paper presents an extensive theoretical and empirical analysis of the choice of schedule buffers by airlines. With airline delays a continuing problem around the world, such an undertaking is valuable, and its lessons extend to other passenger transportation sectors. One useful lesson from the theoretical analysis of a two-flight model is that the mitigation of delay propagation is done entirely by the ground buffer and the second flight’s buffer. The first flight’s buffer plays no role because the ground buffer is a perfect, while nondistorting, substitute. In addition, the apportionment of mitigation responsibility between the ground buffer and the flight buffer of flight two is shown to depend on the relationship between the costs of groundand flight-buffer time. The empirical results show the connection between buffer magnitudes and a host of explanatory variables, including the variability of flight times, which simulations of the model identify as an important determining factor. Bio: Jan K. Brueckner is Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of California, Irvine. He received an B.A. from UC Berkeley in 1972 and a Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1976, and was a long-time faculty member at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign before coming to UCI in 2005. He has served as visiting professor at UC Santa Barbara and UC San Diego, and has been a visiting scholar at many foreign universities. Brueckner has published extensively in the areas of urban economics, public economics, housing finance, and the economics of the airline industry. He served as editor of the Journal of Urban Economics for 16 years and is currently a member of the editorial boards of 8 journals. He has served as a consultant to the World Bank, the US Department of Transportation, many of the major airlines, and other organizations.

Public Online Seminar: From Silver to Platinum: The Effect of Frequent Flier Tier Levels on Airline Demand by Prof. Jos van OMMEREN (5 May 2020)

Title: From Silver to Platinum: The Effect of Frequent Flier Tier Levels on Airline Demand Speaker: Prof. Jos van Ommeren, Professor, School of Business and Economics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Date: 5 May 2020 Abstract: We estimate the effect of tier level within a frequent flier program on members’ demand by exploiting several thresholds corresponding to different tier levels. We demonstrate that members tend to increase demand at the end of the calendar year to reach a higher tier level. We also show that members do not manipulate demand in earlier months, which allows us to apply a fuzzy regression discontinuity approach to identify causal demand effects of higher tier levels. We show that obtaining a higher level induces members to increase their demand, but these results are tier level specific. The lowest tier level induces members to increase their annual demand by only one flight, while the highest tier level increases their demand with 7 flights. We show that tier levels create switching costs for high-demand members as these members are not affected by free flight awards. Bio: Jos van Ommeren (1966) is Professor of Urban Economics at the VU University. He studied Econometrics at the London School of Economics, United Kingdom and received his PhD in Economics at the VU University Amsterdam. His main interests are in the economic analysis of transport and urban issues, including company car taxation, agglomeration, spatial structure, infrastructure improvements, parking policy, congestion and Airnbnb. Jos has also worked at the Dutch Central Bank, the European University Institute, University College London, Cranfield University and Frisch Centre. He is a fellow of the Tinbergen Institute.

Public Online Seminar: Competition in Congested Service Networks with Application to Air Traffic Control Provision in Europe by Prof. Nicole ADLER (29 April 2020)

Title: Competition in Congested Service Networks with Application to Air Traffic Control Provision in Europe Speaker: Prof. Nicole Adler, Professor, Operations Research Department, The Jerusalem School of Business Administration, Hebrew University of Jerusalem Date: 29 April 2020 Abstract: We analyze how a network based market impacts competition, equilibrium charges and efficiency. We find that congested networks served by oligopolistic firms within a supply chain may be more cost efficient and offer lower prices under horizontal integration as compared to the competitive outcome. Furthermore, if a government is interested in encouraging technology adoption in order to increase capacity, this requires either hybrid price caps or vertical integration in order to share both the costs and benefits. The model is subsequently illustrated with a case study on air traffic control provision in Western Europe, in which it is shown that substantial changes in the regulation are required in order to create a more cost efficient sector with increased capacity. Bio: Nicole Adler is a professor and head of the Department of Operations Research and Operations Management at the School of Business Administration of Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Her major research interests include game theory and productivity estimation applied to the field of transportation. Her work has analysed huband-spoke airline competition and mergers, public service obligation tenders, airport productivity and recently, she has utilised game theoretic concepts in order to understand air traffic control markets. Nicole is currently an associate editor for Transportation Research part B: Methodological.

Public Online Seminar: Optimal Use-it-or-lose-it Rules for Airport Slot Management by Dr Achim I. CZERNY (27 April 2020)

Title: Optimal Use-it-or-lose-it Rules for Airport Slot Management Speaker: Dr Achim I. Czerny, Associate Professor, Department of Logistics and Maritime Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Date: 27 April 2020 Abstract: This paper considers a single airport and two time periods in which an incumbent airline competes with a new entrant airline in the second period. Slot allocation is based on grandfathering and features priority for new entrants. Grandfathering is conditional on a minimum use of capacity in the first period (use-it-or-lose-it). The analysis shows that the incumbent's preferred use-it-or-lose-it requirements are lower than the welfare-maximizing requirements, which indicates the need for government involvement for passenger protection. Numerical simulations further indicate that the discrepancy between the incumbent's and the welfare viewpoints are decreasing when airport capacity is expanded and increasing when passenger demand and airline rivalry is growing. The policy lesson is that use-it-or-lose-it requirements should be made on a case-by-case basis in the sense that they are more relaxed when airport capacity increases and tighter when passenger demands and airline rivalries grow. Link to this Paper: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3243395 Bio: Dr Achim I. Czerny is Associate Professor at the Department of Logistics and Maritime Studies (LMS), Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Director of a new academic program in Aviation Management and Logistics, member of a Steering Committee for the establishment of a MSc Programme in Aviation Management and Finance in Hong Kong, and Editorial Board Member with Transport Policy. Previously he was employed as researcher at the VU University of Amsterdam, Department of Spatial Economics, and Assistant Professor of Regulatory Economics at the WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management. He studied Economics at the TU Berlin and holds a doctoral degree in Economics from the TU Berlin. He was the head of the local organizing committee of the International Transportation Economics Association (ITEA) school and conference hosted by LMS in 2018, is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the European Aviation Conference, and board member of the German Aviation Research Society (GARS). He has published numerous research papers in transportation journals and economics journals. He was awarded with the Best Overall Paper Prize of the ITEA Conference on Transportation Economics 2014 (with Anming Zhang) and the Certificate of Excellence in Reviewing from Transportation Research Part B in 2013.

1st GARS Online Panel Discussion

Topic: The Coronavirus Outbreak: An Unprecedent Shock for Aviation – What Now? Panellists (in Alphabetical Order): • Andrew Charlton Managing Director of Aviation Advocacy • Ian Douglas UNSW Sydney and Chair of the International Air Services Commission Australia • Peter Forsyth Monash University, Melbourne • Xiaowen Fu The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong • Brian Pearce Chief Economist International Air Transport Association (IATA) • Mike Tretheway Chief Economist & Chief Strategy Officer of InterVISTAS, Vancouver Moderator: • Achim I. Czerny The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong 1st GARS Online Panel Discussion was held successfully on 14 April 2020. Brian Pearce from IATA highlighted the severity of the Coronavirus outbreak on aviation. Worldwide, flights were down almost 80% by early April. The airline industry was fragile even before the outbreak because of a long tail of weak, non-profitable, airlines. Many Panellists were concerned that the current situation could endanger, or even reverse, the progress made in the liberalization of aviation markets. But, the Panellists still mostly agreed that the current situation could force the aviation industry to restructure and consolidate. That could benefit the industry in the years to come. The recording of Online Panel Discussion is available now.

Dr Miao Song Awarded NSFC Excellent Young Scientists Fund 2019

Dr Miao Song obtained National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Excellent Young Scientists Fund (Hong Kong and Macao) for her research. This is the first time that this national-level fund is made available to scholars at eight universities in the two cities. Each shortlisted scholar will receive a grant of RMB 1.3 million over three years for conducting research. Dr Song's research lies prominently in applying operations research methodologies to provide practical solutions for inventory optimization and the proposed project is entitled "Inventory Optimization in Operations Management". Based on the needs of industry development in China, the project will study the high-speed rail inventory allocation and biopharmaceutical inventory management problems in the practical context. It aims at providing managerial insights and decision support to industrial practitioners while pushing forward the research in management science and engineering.

Two LMS teams won in the Cyberport University Partnership Programme (CUPP) 2019

Cyberport University Partnership Programme (CUPP) 2019 is a financial technology (FinTech)-focused entrepreneurship programme which offered students a chance to participate in an Entrepreneurship Boot Camp in US and receive mentorship from industry elites. Winners will be given HK$100,000 cash grant by Cyberport Creative Micro Fund to kick off their businesses, and the interview opportunity for Cyberport Incubation Programme. Among 13 winning teams, two teams are from LMS: Team PlaySmart Ms LAU Siu Yan Andrea, Ms TSANG Kit Ying Hilda and Ms WONG Tsz Yau Ivy, who recently graduated from BBA (Hons) in Global Supply Chain Management. Team 1661 Miss LAW Wing Sum and Mr TSOI Ho Ching, studying BBA (Hons) in International Shipping and Transport Logistics, teamed up with Mr Kwok Ho Hin, a PolyU Design student. Details of the CUPP 2019 can be found at here. More coverage about CUPP 2019 can be found at: HKET TOPick - 13支大學隊勝出數碼港金融科技創業賽　各獲10萬元資助 Cyberport Facebook