Following airline mergers and network reorganizations aimed at reducing operational costs, consolidated air services at large hub airports have encouraged air travelers to forego use of their smaller local airports to access large hub airports offering superior air services farther away. This study investigates airport leakage in areas of Wisconsin and Michigan served by small airports, where air travelers may leak to neighboring large hubs. Using a proximity-based service area definition, three airports experiencing leakage are identified, and a hierarchical logit airport choice model is applied that accounts for air service characteristics and access distance for travelers coming from these airports’ service areas. Results show that a similar mean number of flight legs at both the local and substitute (large hub) airports will encourage leakage at Dane County Regional and Gerald R. Ford International airports, indicating that adding direct flights alone will not be sufficient to combat leakage. Comparable access distances to local and substitute airports have opposite effects on the local markets of Gerald R. Ford International and Milwaukee Mitchell International airports—promoting leakage at the former but discouraging it at the latter. Furthermore, proportional increases in airfares at local airports lead to uneven losses of markets in investigated service areas. Overall, the study provides empirical evidence of long-distance airport leakage in parts of the U.S. Midwest, and how its implications can be used by small airports seeking to further understand and respond to travelers’ airport choices within their local markets.

在航空公司合并和网络重组旨在降低运营成本之后，大型枢纽机场的综合航空服务鼓励航空旅客放弃使用其较小的本地机场，而进入较远的大型枢纽机场，以提供优质的航空服务。这项研究调查了威斯康星州和密歇根州由小型机场服务的地区的机场泄漏情况，那里的旅客可能泄漏到邻近的大型枢纽。使用基于接近度的服务区定义，确定了三个正在发生泄漏的机场，并应用了分级logit机场选择模型，该模型考虑了来自这些机场服务区的旅客的航空服务特征和出入距离。结果表明，本地机场和替代机场（大型枢纽）的平均飞行航程数量将促进丹恩县地区机场和杰拉尔德·R·福特国际机场的泄漏，这表明仅增加直接航班不足以抵御泄漏。到本地和替代机场的相近距离对杰拉尔德·R·福特国际机场和密尔沃基·米切尔国际机场的本地市场产生相反的影响，促进了前者的泄漏，但阻止了后者的泄漏。此外，当地机场的机票价格成比例增加，导致被调查服务区域的市场损失不均衡。总体而言，该研究提供了美国中西部部分地区长途机场泄漏的经验证据，