LIST OF COMMON ABBREVIATIONS 7 INTRODUCTION 13 1. THE ESSENCE OF AIR TRANSPORT AND ITS socıo-ECONOMIC ROLE............................................................ ....................................................... 17 1.1. The essence of transport and its types 17 1.2. The origin and specifıcity of air transportation 19 1.3. Infrastructure in air transportation 21 1.4. The notion of the regional airport 23 1.5. Polish regional airports on the global aviation map 27 2. SIGNIFICANCE OF COMPETITIVENESS iN AIR TRANSPORTATION 35 2.1. The notion and essence of enterprises' competitiveness 35 Concepts of enterprises' competitiveness 35 Fundamental aspects of competitiveness 36 The role and signifıcance of competitive advantage 39 2.2. Competitiveness in air transportation with a particular focus on the Polish air transport services market 43 Specifıcity of air transport services market from the perspective of competitiveness 43 Substitute competition 48 The functioning of Polish airports from the perspective of domestic and European air transportation market competition 52 3. FOUNDATIONS FOR ASSESSING COMPETITIVENESS OF AN AIRPORT 59 3.1. Fundamental aspects of airport competitiveness 59 3.2. Measures for the assessment of airport operation 69 3.3. Selected methods for the analysis of competitiveness versus possible identifıcation of the determinants of airport competitiveness 70 Porter's five forces model . 72 Econometric models .. 74 Benchmark analysis - a review of empirical research 77 Quantitative analysis of significant influencing factors shaping competitiveness of an airport based on expert assessments .. 80 Use of analytical scheme in the study of airport competitiveness 81 4. EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL DETERMINANTS OF REGIONAL AIRPORT COMPETITIVENESS 87 4.1. Macro-, meso- and micro-environment factors determining the competitive position ofa regional airport 88 Specificity of the macro-environment of an airport 88 Meso-environment factors determining the competitiveness ofa regional airport 89 Micro-environment factors ofa regional airport's competitiveness 89 4.2. Internal determinants ofa regional airport's competitiveness 95 5. COMPETITIVENESS MODEL OF A REGIONAL AIRPORT 99 5.1. Linear econometric models for panel