Effects of air cargo transportation on international trade: Role of large airports

The importance of air cargo transportation and airports in our lives was proven during the Covid-19 pandemic with the rapid transport capabilities they provided. This interaction has made the role of airports in cities more prominent in the 21st century. This role has started to take shape within the framework of concepts such as the airport city and Aerotropolis. The impact of these concepts, especially in the case of large airports, has been increasingly observed in airports built in the last 40 years. New commercial functions are added to airports within the framework of these concepts, and airports are constructed on large areas and at significant costs to accommodate these functions. Air transportation has grown rapidly between 2009 and 2019. This thesis aims to examine the interaction between air cargo transportation and international trade for the years 2009-2019, focusing on 8 major airports under investigation. Data obtained related to international trade, air cargo transportation, and airports were analyzed using Granger causality, Vector Error Correction, and Random Coefficient methods. The findings indicate a mutual Granger causality relationship between international trade and air cargo transportation while no such relationship was found between flight numbers and trade. Long-term relationships of the selected data were examined in the Vector Error Correction model. It was observed that international trade and air cargo transportation interacted differently at each airport examined through the Random Coefficient method.