Reynolds-Feighan, Aisling J.Aisling J.Reynolds-FeighanZou, LiLiZouYu, ChunyanChunyanYu2023-11-132023-11-132022 Elsev2022-10Journal of Air Transport Management0969-6997http://hdl.handle.net/10197/24981We develop two air traffic seasonality indices to complement the traditional Gini index. These measurements are adopted to assess the variability of air traffic over time and across the route network of low-cost carriers (LCCs) in Europe and the United States and to estimate the impact of seasonality on fleet utilization. Using panel data for nine LCCs in Europe and the United States from 2004 to 2017, we find that higher seasonality results in lower fleet utilization after controlling for stage length, network size, aircraft size, and fleet standardization. Moreover, we find that seasonality is negatively associated with spatial and climate zone diversification of airline route networks. These results suggest that airlines may be able to reduce seasonal traffic variability through diversifying their networks geographically and consequently mitigating the negative fleet utilization impact.enThis is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Air Transport Management. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Air Transport Management (VOL 105, (October 2022)) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jairtraman.2022.102272SeasonalityFleet utilizationLow-cost carriersJournal Article10511510.1016/j.jairtraman.2022.1022722022-07-28https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ie/