Capital flight? Do airlines move fuel-efficient planes to high-fuel-tax routes?
This paper shows that airlines operate fuel-efficient planes on routes with high fuel taxes. It builds on a large data-collection effort compiling information on fuel taxes at the airport level, which is used to generate route-level taxes for thousands of nonstop airline routes in the US. The paper extends previous work exploring the connection between fuel prices and airline operations, with a new focus on the taxation of inputs. The results are used to derive the local pollution benefits from a route-specific fuel-tax increase.
Authors
- Jan K. Brueckner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9580-1924)
- David Robert Agrawal (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8480-1849)
- A. Quinton White (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8254-0278)
Institutions
- United States Department of the Treasury (US)
- University of California, Irvine (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Transportation Research Part A Policy and Practice
- Published
- 2026-11-06
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2026.105338
- Primary Topic
- Aviation Industry Analysis and Trends
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00