Sven Maertens

This paper analyses multimodal mobility platforms which enable the matching of supply and demand for transportation services, including new forms such as ride-hailing, ride-pooling, or vehicle sharing. Typically, such platforms appear as mobile applications (apps), sometimes evolving into “super apps” that even include non-transport services. This paper aims at answering the following research questions: (1) Which digital mobility platforms dominate the global market and how can they be characterized?; (2) What economic impacts can be expected for mobility companies from a possible EU regulation to facilitate platform-based bookings and multimodal travel (e.g., the EU Multimodal Digital Mobility Services (MDMS) initiative)?; and (3) Which overarching recommendations can be derived for policymakers concerning such a possible regulation? To investigate these questions, we first identify and characterize the most important mobility platforms based on data from an analytics firm for the mobile app market. The characteristics considered include platform usage, the number of integrated mobility services, and the countries in which they are operated. We then analyse statements from stakeholders collected during a public consultation on the EU MDMS initiative to identify significant SWOTs (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) for individual stakeholder groups in connection with such a possible future EU regulation. Based on this, we derive regulatory recommendations for policymakers.

The aviation industry is facing pressure from stakeholders to transform towards greater sustainability. From a managerial and marketing perspective, not only the actual implementation and achievements of sustainability measures, but also their communication to stakeholders is likely to be crucial—and in many cases even legally required. This research evaluates the scope of sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting of Europe’s five largest airline groups for or from the year 2019, just prior the COVID-19 crisis. For this, dedicated sustainability reports and non-financial statements of Air France-KLM, easyJet, International Airlines Group, Lufthansa Group and Ryanair are evaluated and compared in a qualitative content analysis, using the Standards of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) as reference categories. The results indicate that the sustainability publications differ by airline business model, as the two low-cost carriers report less content in non-financial statements only, without publishing any standalone sustainability reports. Independent of the business model, most airlines surprisingly neglect the economic dimension of sustainability. The airline sector could improve its sustainability marketing by reporting both their economic, environmental, and social impacts and achievements.

Zusammenfassung: Der Beitrag zeigt anhand einer typischen Verspätungssituation an einem intermodalen Verkehrsknoten die verkehrlichen und ökonomischen Effekte dieser Verspätung für verschiedene Stakeholder auf (Störfallszenario). Weiterhin wird ein Szenario zur Verbesserung der Verspätungssituation, in dem die einzelnen Stakeholder am Verkehrsknoten auch intermodal kooperieren (Kooperationsszenario), entworfen und in seinen Effekten mit dem Störfallszenario verglichen. Der Vergleich der verkehrlichen und ökonomischen Effekte beider Szenarien ermöglicht Aussagen über die relative Vorteilhaftigkeit eines kooperativen Verspätungs- und Störfallmanagements an intermodalen Verkehrsknoten.

This paper studies the feasibility of CORSIA’s carbon neutral growth goal based on verified carbon offsetting. It is motivated by an ongoing general debate about the climate and regulatory integrity of carbon offsetting, thus systematically identifying critical carbon offset characteristics. Using registry data from the largest carbon offset verifiers eligible under CORSIA, we show that the majority of carbon offsets have minor climate integrity. This challenges CORSIA’s neutral growth objective. However, unconditional offset price differentials are only weak signals for climate integrity. To increase environmental effectiveness, a narrower scope of eligibility rules is necessary in order to ensure maximum compliance of projects and strengthen the necessary price effect of carbon offsets. However, it is highly questionable whether there is enough potential supply of offsets to ensure such high integrity, indicating that carbon offsetting should be considered as a transitory measure only.

“Future skills” increase employees’ prospects in the labor market, particularly in dynamic times, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic. (Not only) in Germany, flight attendants represent an occupational group without state-recognized vocational occupation who are particularly affected by the pandemic due to serious and long-lasting declines in air transport volumes. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that the future skills of flight attendants play an important role when applying for jobs in other industries. An empirical survey (n = 273) from April 2021 indicates that German-speaking flight attendants possess some of the future skills most frequently identified in key studies on future competencies, as well as extensive language skills, but have deficits in “working with computer systems” and “programming”. Pro-active training of employees in future skills, especially in crisis-prone professions, could facilitate future transitions into new professional fields.

Zusammenfassung: Der Fernbusverkehr ist zu Beginn der Pandemie fast vollständig zum Erliegen gekommen und nimmt seit Ende März 2021 seinen Betrieb wieder auf. Seit seiner Liberalisierung 2013 bietet der Fernbusverkehr nicht nur preiswerte Mobilität, sondern trägt auch zu Einkommen und Beschäftigung bei. Es ist zu erwarten, dass der Sektor wieder seine bisherige ökonomische Bedeutung erreicht, weil insbesondere Privatpersonen dieses Verkehrsmittel nutzen. Im Gegensatz zu Geschäftsreisen wird hier nach der Pandemie keine Verhaltensänderung erwartet.

Zusammenfassung: Der Luftverkehr ist durch die Maßnahmen gegen die COVID-19-Pandemie besonders stark betroffen. Der Verkehrsrückgang betrug 2020 zum Teil mehr als 90 %. Da die Branche von großer Bedeutung ist, sind besondere staatliche Unterstützungsmaßnahmen sinnvoll, wenn die Pandemie vorbei ist und neues Wachstum einsetzt. Dabei sollten jedoch nicht nur bestimmte Unternehmen unterstützt werden, sondern die Hilfsmaßnahmen sollten auch an bestimmte Kriterien gebunden sein.