UBC Reports | Vol. 47 | No. 06 | Mar. 22, 2001

Author flies high

Commerce professor helps open the skies for travellers

Fasten your seatbelt. Prepare for takeoff and high altitudes.

Our pilot is Commerce and Business Administration Prof. Tae Oum.

"Airlines are a sexy, prestige business but the research of my colleagues and I has exerted considerable influence," says Oum, who is director of the Centre for Transportation Studies.

"Most notably, deregulation has dramatically reduced air fares," says Oum whose two recent books are Shaping Air Transport in Asia, with Chunyan Yu and Globalization and Strategic Alliances: The Case of the Airlines Industry with Jong-Hun Park and Anming Zhang.

The first book studies an area of many countries with close borders and a slower pace of airline liberalization, he explains.

"Airlines are a symbol of high-tech and a source of national pride, but when domestic markets are monopolized, efficient growth is limited and costs and ticket prices are higher."

The second book investigates 14 major airlines which have formed strategic alliances. Air Canada, for example, is a member of the Star Alliance.

Oum isn't surprised by complaints in Canada.

"The priority of monopolies is to make as much money as possible, but Canada's domestic market will eventually be opened in return for routes in other countries, just as the CNR is no longer exclusively Canadian after buying up rail lines in the U.S."

Busy as an air traffic controller as his UBC courses take off in popularity, Oum is president-elect of the American Economics Association's Transportation and Public Utilities Group and president of the Air Transport Research Group -- a worldwide networking organization for researchers, policy makers and executives.

What keeps him flying high?

"To improve the efficiency of the world's airlines for the benefit of consumers," he says.

See also: Genetics in book's makeup, More authors than ever honoured at annual event, Pianist's work in the key of Beethoven, UBC Authors 2000.