離島航線補貼政策與營運效率分析

Abstract

政府為維持離島基本航空服務而核予離島航線補貼，然而補貼金額逐年增加，卻缺乏有效衡量其效益之評估方法，離島航線的經營亦亟需加以改善。本研究將探討離島航空補貼對於離島航空服務之影響，由供需兩方面評估離島航空補貼之效益，另亦利用隨機邊界法衡量各離島航線之營運效率，並分析影響效率之因素。 由供需模式校估結果中發現，無虧損補貼航線的價格彈性較虧損補貼航線大。小三通政策則會導致航線需求增加。而兩類航線之票價隨乘客數變化所造成的變動並不大。至於當離島航線存在海運替代運具時，票價會較低。福利分析結果顯示，居民票價補貼的實施雖造成社會福利的損失，但主要能讓消費者福利增加，考量社會公平性與外部效益，居民票價補貼仍是十分重要；營運虧損補貼則會影響航空公司的供給，受到價格管制的影響，部分航線之航空公司虧損補貼前並不願提供航空服務，因此在現行制度下，這些航線的營運相當依賴虧損補貼。另外，隨機邊界模式的校估結果指出，當離島航線的有效競爭家數越多，市場越趨競爭時，會導致技術效率變低。若核予航線營運虧損補貼，航線的技術效率則會提升。而當航線存在替代運具時，則技術效率會隨航程的增加而提升；若航線的航程相同，則具有替代運具的航線效率表現較佳。

The objective of subsidies for offshore island routes is to maintain the essential air service of these isolated areas. Nevertheless, it lacks an effective method to measure the economic benefit of increasing subsidies. Also, it is essential to improve the operations of offshore island routes. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of subsidies on the air market of offshore islands, and evaluate the subsidy benefit on both supply and demand sides. Furthermore, this study applies a stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) approach to evaluate operational efficiency of these air routes, and analyzes the determinants of efficiency. The results of the supply and demand model indicate that the price elasticities of demand of the routes without deficit subsidies are larger than those of the subsidized routes. The “Mini-Three-Links” policy increases the demand. On the supply side, ticket price is not sensitive to the number of passengers and is lower if there is an alternative sea mode. Welfare analysis reveals that awarding fare subsidy causes the deadweight loss but increases the consumer surplus. Considering the social equity and external benefit, fare subsidy still plays an important role in the air market of offshore islands. On the other hand, deficit subsidy affects the supply of the air market. Due to the price regulation, carriers may not provide services for some routes without deficit subsidy. Hence, these carriers rely on deficit subsidy in the current system. The results of stochastic frontier model suggest the intensity of competition has a negative impact on route efficiency, and air routes with deficit subsidy are more efficient than those without deficit subsidy. In addition, the efficiency increases as the distance of an air route increases while an alternative sea mode exists in the market. Routes with alternative modes are more efficient than those without alternative modes, given the same route distance.