CHANGES IN AIR SERVICE CONNECTIVITY AND EMPLOYMENT

In this paper the relationship between air service connectivity and a subset of professional employment as defined by administrative and auxiliary workers for the fifty-nine largest metropolitan areas in the USA for the period 1978-88 is examined. The importance of airline service connectivity as an industrial location factor for company facilities is highlighted. Restructuring of the air service network and the emergence of the postderegulation hub-and-spoke system are also discussed. It is argued that connectivity affects, and is simultaneously affected by, administrative and auxiliary employment levels. Empirical findings suggest that changes in connectivity have a greater influence on administrative and auxiliary employment levels than changes in administrative and auxiliary employment have on connectivity.