Small is beautiful? The impact of economic crisis,low cost carriers,and size on efficiency in Spanish airports (2009–2011)

This paper carries out a comparative technical efficiency analysis of 35 Spanish airports using panel data for 2009–2011 with a data envelopment analysis (DEA) methodology. The results suggest that airport size has a positive impact on the technical and scale efficiency and that the presence of low cost carriers has positively affected the scale efficiency of the airports where they operate. The results also show that during the present economic crisis Spanish airports have experienced a dramatic productivity regress which is due to the reduction of their technological change component.     

Technical efficiency of UK airports

In this paper, the random stochastic frontier model is used to estimate the technical efficiency of UK airports. The airports are ranked according to their productivity for the period 2000–2005 and homogenous and heterogeneous variables in the cost function are disentangled. These changes the ranking of the efficiency of UK airports compared to more conventional measures.     

Governance structures and the market orientation of airports in Europe's peripheral areas

This paper investigates the relationship between governance structures and the market orientation of airports. The focus is on Europe's peripheral areas, where airports tend to be publicly owned and operated as an independent entity or as part of a regional or national airport system. This paper finds that market orientation is significantly higher at independently operated airports compared to system-operated airports and that independent governance structures, market opportunities and competitive intensity have a significant positive effect on airport market orientation.     

Cost-benefit analysis of airport security: Are airports too safe?

This paper assesses the risks and cost-effectiveness of measures designed to further protect airport terminals and associated facilities such as car parks from terrorist attack in the U.S., Europe, and the Asia-Pacific area. The analysis considers threat likelihood, the cost of security measures, hazard likelihood, risk reduction and expected losses to compare the costs and benefits of security measures to decide the optimal security measures to airports. Monte-Carlo simulation methods were used to propagate hazard likelihood, risk reduction and loss uncertainties in the calculation of net benefits that also allows probability of cost-effectiveness to be calculated. It is found that attack probabilities had to be much higher than currently observed to justify additional protective measures. Overall, then, it is questionable whether special efforts to further protect airports are sensible expenditures. Indeed, some relaxation of the measures already in place may well be justified.     

Accessibility and attractiveness of European airports: A simple small community perspective

This paper describes a simple method for comparing airports based on their accessibility to regional, continental or global air transport networks, using a variety of different measures of traffic. The method is applied to all Irish and UK airports for the years 2000, 2003 and 2005 and compares the performance of these airports in serving the UK/Ireland, Western European, Greater European, North American and global air transport markets. The method may be generalised to assess other regional groupings of airports in differing regional contexts, in situations where very limited demographic and socio-economic data are available.     

Car parking management at airports: A special case?

The number of employees who daily commute to an airport represents, on average, one quarter to one half of the daily number of passengers. At UK airports it is rare for employees to pay for their car parking, with most employers absorbing the charges imposed by the airport authority. This paper details the main issues with offering free parking to employees drawing comparisons between a selection of case studies where parking management measures for employees have been introduced, and the airport sector. The paper then reports on a survey and a series of focus groups that were conducted with employees at a large UK airport in order to gauge their attitudes and likely behavioural responses to potential parking management strategies. Key findings are presented to show how airports may be able to learn from the experiences of others in the successful introduction of parking management strategies, but that there are also key barriers that are specific to airports that would need to be overcome.     

Long-term evolution of airport networks: Optimization model and its application to the United States

In this article, we introduce an optimization model aimed to assist aviation authorities in their strategic decisions regarding the long-term expansion of a network of airports. The objective is to maximize total system throughput for a given budget taking into account the capacity of the airports and the impact of travel costs upon demand. The results that can be obtained through the application of the model are first illustrated for a hypothetical small-size network and then in a study regarding the evolution of the network of the principal airports of the United States.     

Brand perceptions of airports using social networks

The management of social media activities by airports is an emerging issue, and existing empirical literature on the measurement of brand perception in the airport industry is lacking. Usually, the measurement of brand perception is carried out by surveys, which are costly and rapidly become outdated. This study employs a newly developed algorithm to infer brand perceptions by mining the social connections of airports. Twitter accounts of 118 airports in the world are analysed by considering three emerging attributes in the airport industry: environment, disability and luxury. The paper shows how it is possible to identify the current positions of airports in the perception of the customers.     

The spatial distribution of employment around major Chinese airports

This paper examines the spatial distribution of employment around major Chinese airports. While the impacts of airports on employment have been debated within the European and North American contexts, airport-related urban development in China has been less well studied. Such an analysis is also timely given rapid urban and airport development in Chinese cities. Focusing on fifty-nine major airports in mainland China, employment centers are identified using gridded enterprise registration information. Our analysis suggests that there are few airports with nearby employment centers. However, planned airport economic zones (AEZs) with stronger policy support, longer periods of development, and located in major cities are more likely to have employment clusters. Furthermore, employment centers that do exist near airports are more likely specialize in manufacturing, transportation and logistics, and wholesale and retail trade rather than in financial and business services.     

A ticket to ride: Evolving landscapes of air travel accessibility in the United States

During the past decade, air passenger service in the United States has been exposed to numerous carrier bankruptcies, antitrust investigations, mergers, labor problems and a massive increase in competition. These internal elements, combined with the rising costs of fuel and the threat of terrorism combine to make a relatively uncertain air travel landscape for both passengers and operators. Moreover, these dynamics have generated significant geographical shifts in airline route structures and airports serviced by commercial carriers. These factors, combined with increasing levels of consumer access to fare and routing information, have altered the landscape of air travel accessibility in the United States. The purpose of this paper is to examine issues of consumer air travel accessibility through an analysis of three critical measures: flight segments, flight time and ticket costs. In addition, a typology of air passenger accessibility is generated for the 156 busiest commercial airports in the United States using these three measures. Results suggest significant local and regional biases in time and cost, relative to distance, for many US markets.     

UK regional airport commercialisation and privatisation: 25 years on

It has been 25 years since the UK was the first country to begin the process of commercialising and privatising its airports. The purpose of this paper is to revisit the UK Government’s stated aims with respect to commercialisation and privatisation, namely to “encourage enterprise and efficiency in the operation of major airports … [and that] … air transport facilities should not in general be subsidised by the taxpayer … [and they] should normally operate as commercial undertakings.” The authors of this paper consider the success of commercialisation and privatisation against these aims with respect to the 16 UK regional airports commercialised by the 1986 Airports Act part II. In addition, this paper considers the policy ramifications that have eventuated. The authors argue that many of the benefits may have been achievable by commercialisation alone.     

RISK assessment in airport maintenance runway condition using MCDA-C

This paper proposed the initial development of a multicriteria methodology for a runway maintenance monitoring using risk perception at airports with the MCDA-C methodology. To support morphological structuring and semantic judgments eight specialists in airport maintenance and operations were interviewed and the model was built based in their perceptions and deep technical knowledge on the subject. We found that the 7 most representative criteria were able to deal with approximately 80% of the perceived risk by the experts, indicating that a considerable part of the resources of the Brazilian airport infrastructure operations could be being redirected towards a more rational application. Finally, we applied the method in a real scenario situation by analyzing real data from the 29 the busiest Brazilian airports. Data showed objectively that 18 airports presented scores that clearly indicated being in a favorable (safer) or unfavorable (risky) condition regarding the criteria analyzed, guiding where the state can spend the resources with the best benefit.     

Hello major airports,goodbye regional airports? Recent changes in European and US low-cost airline airport choice

Low-cost carriers (LCCs) are assumed to adopt a certain business model in which an important element is the concentration of services at secondary and regional airports. Yet, evidence suggests that increasingly LCCs also establish themselves in what can be considered the major airports. This raises the question of whether LCCs are changing their business model and adopting practices associated with the traditional, incumbent airlines, and if so what might cause such change. Based on categorization of airports and using OAG flight data the US and European markets are investigated. Focusing on several LCCs, with more attention given to Southwest and Ryanair, their profile of operation with respect to the type of airports used is analysed for a period of between 15 and 25 years and up to 2015. The results clearly indicate that LCCs are increasing their operations from major airports, while generally continuing their growth and expansion strategy. The main implication of which is the increase in direct competition between LCCs and traditional airlines while the impacts of this change on the smaller airports are not clear yet and need to be investigated further.     

An empirical examination of U.S. travelers’ intentions to use biometric e-gates in airports

The current air travel security challenges call for innovative solutions. Among those solutions, biometric e-gates allow security agencies to allocate their resources efficiently while making travel more fluid in sensitive areas of airports. Using data from a nationwide sample of U.S. air travelers, this study constructed and validated empirically a conceptual model explaining travelers’ intentions to use biometric e-gates in airports. It was found that performance and effort expectancy had the highest impacts, while privacy concerns had low impacts on intentions. Several implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Airport regulation in Europe: Is there need for a European Observatory?

This paper provides an overview of how the major airports are regulated in Europe. In order to eliminate the potential of airports to exercise market power and protect the public interest, it has become increasingly necessary to set a common regulatory framework. We intend to discuss the need for a single regulator in Europe to monitor or establish the quality of service and the charges practiced by the airports, to ensure cost-relatedness, transparency and non-discrimination. The existing regulatory approaches regarding aeronautical charges and their economic implications are also analyzed. We propose the creation of a European Observatory for this sector.     

A welfare analysis of subsidies for airports

The welfare of residents and profitability of business in many medium-sized MSAs would be improved if their airports had a higher level of service, for example reflected by more frequent flights serving more destinations. The level of service at such airports may rise with the number of enplanements, making total enplanements and the level of service subject to a positive feedback effect. Using a new annual data set put together by combining five sources for the years 2002 through 2012, we find evidence for such a positive feedback effect. We argue that subsidies at smaller airports may be welfare-enhancing in the presence of such an effect.     

Ready for digital transformation? The effect of organisational readiness,innovation, airport size and ownership on digital change at airports

This study investigates the effect of organisational readiness, innovation and airport size and ownership on digital change at airports. Data is collected from a survey of managers at 94 airports worldwide and analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling. Organisational readiness is found to have a direct effect on digital change. Organisational readiness also has a direct effect on innovation, which subsequently affects digital change. Airport size has a direct effect on digital change while the effect of ownership is not significant. The findings show that successful development of organisational readiness can be used to speed up the rate of innovation needed for digital change at airports.     

Airports’ managerial human capital,ownership, and efficiency

Airport performance differences require a better understanding of the sources of efficiency and competitive advantages. Globalization drives the air transport industry into a more market-orientated business questioning the relationship between managerial decisions and airport performance. Aviation management studies do not consider managerial capabilities and skills since they are intangible exogenous factors that are difficult to assess. In this study, a stochastic frontier analysis is performed accounting for top managers' theoretical knowledge and experience enclosed as exogenous drivers of airports' efficiency. The model analyses 12 Polish airports from 2009 to 2017. The results show a diversity of airports with a different number of passengers as efficient. The top managers' experience, when gained in the same airport, has a positive impact on airports' technical efficiency. Airports having unstable management are more technically inefficient. Independently of the efficiency level, some airports change their management after the national elections, suggesting that managers are chosen by political interest rather than by their specialised knowledge or their prior experience in aviation management. The results suggest that more practical knowledge improve airports’ performance. Airports with a majority of government ownership that are the largest ones increase their efficiency significantly, suggesting that political decisions may be discriminatory in detriment of airports managed by regional and city authorities.     

Impact of airports on regional accessibility and social development

This study compares the impact that two airports in Norway have on regional accessibility and social development. One of the airports is a small-sized airport that serves a relatively remote region and has direct air services to other regions in Norway but not to the capital city of Oslo or to destinations abroad. The other is a medium-sized airport that serves a relatively accessible region and has direct air services to the capital city of Oslo and to a number of destinations in Norway and abroad. The study compares opinions of residents that live in the respective regions and is based on the findings of a postal survey that was completed by over 2000 residents. The Independent Samples t-test is used to investigate the significance of any differences in opinion. Significant differences were found to reflect the size and scope of services available at the airports and specific characteristics of the regions that they serve. Residents in the more remote region have a significantly higher frequency of travel by air to destinations in Norway but a significantly lower frequency of travel by air to destinations abroad. Trip frequency for holidays is significantly higher in the region that has an airport with direct international air services while trip frequency to access health services is significantly higher in the region that has limited local health services. The airport is significantly more important for resident location and retention in the remoter region.     

The impact of national macro-environment exogenous variables on airport efficiency

Our paper tests the extent to which airport efficiency is affected by national macro-environmental factors. The literature on airport performance measurement is extensive but has tended to focus mainly on estimating the effects on efficiency from what are mostly endogenous variables. We undertake a two-stage analysis of 59 international airports observations in the Europe and Asia-Pacific regions. The first stage involves the use of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to measure the efficiency of these airports. This is followed by a second stage, where we use a Truncated Regression model that incorporates the Simar and Wilson bootstrapping technique to test the extent to which a set of macro-environmental factors affect airport efficiency. Results reveal that a state's air transport sector output, institutional quality and robustness, the macro-economic environment, safety and security, and human development, all have a significant influence on the performance of airports. The result of this study fills the gap in the literature related to the non-discretionary variables affecting the performance of airports. It also suggests that policymakers and airport managers consider the identified factors when benchmarking airports.