Operational efficiency of Asia–Pacific airports

Airports are important drivers of economic development and thus under tremendous pressure from emerging competitors. However, few studies have analysed the operational efficiency of Asia–Pacific airports. This study therefore evaluated the operational efficiency of 21 Asia–Pacific airports between 2002 and 2011. A two-stage method was used: Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to assess airport efficiency, followed by the second-stage regression analysis to identify the key determinants of airport efficiency. The first-stage DEA results indicated that Adelaide, Beijing, Brisbane, Hong Kong, Melbourne, and Shenzhen are the efficient airports. The second-stage regression analysis suggested that percentage of international passengers handled by an airport, airport hinterland population size, dominant airline(s) of an airport when entering global airline strategic alliance, and an increase in GDP per capita are significant in explaining variations in airport efficiency.     

An environment-adjusted dynamic efficiency analysis of international tourist hotels in Taiwan

The paper is the first study to combine four-stage approach and dynamic data envelopment analysis (DEA) to investigate the efficiencies of 45 international tourist hotels in Taiwan during 2002–2011. Using the four-stage approach of Fried et al. [1999. Incorporating the operating environment into a nonparametric measure of technical efficiency. Journal of Productivity Analysis, 12(3), 249–267] and the dynamic DEA model by Tone and Tsutsui [2010. Dynamic DEA: A slacks-based measure approach. Omega, 38(3), 145–156], the study considers the effects of the external operating environments and carry-over activities between two consecutive terms, and calculates managerial efficiency of international tourism hotels in Taiwan. The empirical results show that dynamic DEA provides more stable pure managerial efficiencies than traditional DEA, reflecting the continuity of the links between terms. Then the study employs Tobit regression to estimate the effects of location, management style, and occupancy rate on input slacks. The location in resort area leads to less slacks of employee and room. The chain system helps reduce slacks in room and area of meal department. The slack of employee and room gets lower while occupancy rate gets higher. After controlling the three external environment variables, the efficiency scores of 28 hotels increase, 9 hotels fall, and other 8 hotels still sustain on the efficient frontier.     

Route-based data envelopment analysis models

This paper proposes two novel route-based data envelopment analysis (DEA) models that jointly measure the route-level and company-level efficiencies amongst transport carriers. The core logics comprise a three-stage procedure that determines company efficiency, route efficiency and optimal allocation ratios for the common inputs. We prove that the ranking order of company performance determined by the route-based DEA model is identical to that determined by the company-based DEA model. An empirical case demonstrates the superiority of the proposed models in identifying the less efficient routs/companies as well as in reducing the input slacks without subjective conjectures.     

Capacity-oriented passenger flow control under uncertain demand: Algorithm development and real-world case study

This paper proposes a problem of passenger flow organization in subway stations under uncertain demand. The existing concepts of station service capacity are extended and further classified into three in different demand scenarios. Mathematical models are put forward to measure the three capacities and a unified simulation-based algorithm is developed to solve them. To increase computing speed, data envelopment analysis (DEA) and genetic algorithms (GA) are embedded in this algorithm. A case study will demonstrate the performance of the proposed algorithm and give a detailed procedure of passenger flow control based on station service capacity in various demand scenarios.     

Performance evaluation of bus routes: A provider and passenger perspective

In this paper, the provision of bus services along different routes that comprise a public transit network is assessed taking into consideration, the service providers, the users and the societal perspectives. This model is based on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) [Charnes, A., Cooper W.W., Rhodes, E., 1978. Measuring the efficiency of decision-making units. European Journal of Operational Research 2, 429–444] and derives from the Network Model in DEA [Färe, R., Grosskopf, S., 2000. Network DEA. Socio-Economic Planning Sciences 34, 35–49] and Goal Programming in DEA [Athanassopoulos, A., 1995. Goal programming and data envelopment analysis (GoDEA) for target-based multi-level planning: allocating central grants to the Greek local authorities. European Journal of Operational Research 87, 535–550]. This proposed approach enables the decision maker not only to optimally allocate resources across the transit network but to achieve targets for societal variables that represent the environment in which the bus services are provided.     

Profitability measurement of UK theme parks: an aggregate approach

Traditionally, financial ratios were used for profitability measurement. This research attempts to apply data envelopment analysis (DEA) to aggregate various financial ratios into a composite profitability index. The research sample includes 13 parks managed by 10 leading theme park operators in the UK. The result first reveals that multi‐site operators are significantly more profitable than their single‐site rivals. Furthermore, the consistency between DEA and ratio analysis indicates that DEA can be used as a good proxy of ratio analysis. It is hoped that this approach can provide new insights about financial measurement not available to managers through ratio analysis. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dynamic DEA models with network structure: An application for Iranian airlines

Efficiency estimation of interdependent divisions within a company or assessing the interrelated processes in a production system provides insights for improving the operational performance. Recent developments in network data envelopment analysis (NDEA) models enable decision making units (DMUs) to be informed of inefficient processes within the system. The NDEA model assesses the processes of the system in a specific moment and ignores the dynamic effects within the production processes. Thus, without considering the temporal dimension of production processes, biased efficiency measurement will be obtained that provides misleading information to DMUs. For evaluating the performance of a DMU with interrelated processes during specified multiple periods, this paper proposes a relational dynamic NDEA (DNDEA) model which measures the efficiencies of the system and its internal processes over the time, simultaneously. To illustrate the capability of the proposed model, this study for the first time measures the efficiency of eight Iranian airlines in several periods connected to each other by carry over flows. The actual data is gathered in three periods from 2010 to 2012 and the results are compared with the dynamic DEA and network DEA models in the same time span.     

A fully fuzzy network DEA-Range Adjusted Measure model for evaluating airlines efficiency: A case of Iran

Due to the competition among companies, evaluating the performance is one of the most important issues for managers. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) - Range Adjusted Measure model (RAM) is one of the non-radial models to evaluate the performance of companies. This paper presents a fully fuzzy network DEA-RAM model for evaluating airlines and extends the network DEA-RAM model in the fully fuzzy framework. First, a network structure is designed for airlines and then, a DEA-RAM model is presented for calculating efficiency scores. To handle uncertainty in data, fully fuzzy approach is considered and finally, a multi-objective network model is proposed to calculate airlines’ efficiencies. To solve the proposed fully fuzzy DEA-RAM model, the lexicographic approach is used and the efficiency scores are reported as interval numbers. To illustrate the capability of the proposed fully fuzzy DEA-RAM model, the actual data of 14 Iranian airlines are gathered and the interval efficiencies of airlines are evaluated.     

Reprint of “Planning in feasible region by two-stage target-setting DEA methods: An application in green supply chain management of public transportation service providers”

To meet green supply chain management’s requirements of a company and its transportation service providers (TSPs), it is essential to set clear, achievable, and realistic targets. This paper proposes two data envelopment analysis (DEA) approaches to find targets for two-stage network structures. The objective of proposed approaches is to plan in feasible region. The feasible region specifies bounds to ensure targets are within current operational capacity of TSPs. Applying the approaches to set targets for 24 TSPs lead to different results. However, proposed models ensure that the TSPs would be efficient in their current capacity.     

Planning in feasible region by two-stage target-setting DEA methods: An application in green supply chain management of public transportation service providers

To meet green supply chain management’s requirements of a company and its transportation service providers (TSPs), it is essential to set clear, achievable, and realistic targets. This paper proposes two data envelopment analysis (DEA) approaches to find targets for two-stage network structures. The objective of proposed approaches is to plan in feasible region. The feasible region specifies bounds to ensure targets are within current operational capacity of TSPs. Applying the approaches to set targets for 24 TSPs lead to different results. However, proposed models ensure that the TSPs would be efficient in their current capacity.     

US airport financial reform and its implications for airport efficiency: An exploratory investigation

This study investigates the effect on airport productive efficiency of two major funding sources used by US airports, namely the Airport Improvement Program (AIP) grants and the Passenger Facility Charges (PFC). A two-stage Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) modeling approach is employed for this purpose. In the first stage, we estimate airport productive efficiency using a variable returns-to-scale DEA model with both desirable and undesirable outputs. In the second stage, random effects regression models are estimated with airport efficiency scores from the first stage as the dependent variable and PFC and a proxy for AIP grants as two of the explanatory variables. By applying the two-stage DEA model to 42 primary US airports, it is found that PFC use has a positive impact on airport productive efficiency, whereas the impact of AIP grants is negative. Multiple counterfactual scenarios are examined by altering the mix of the two types of funding sources. The results show that simultaneously raising the PFC ceiling and decreasing AIP grants could lead to greater airport productive efficiency. The US federal aviation authority would also benefit from realizing these scenarios, especially given the budgetary constraints it faces.     

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.     

Operational efficiencies across Asia Pacific airports

This paper analyses various dimensions of operational efficiencies in major Asia Pacific airports through Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models that simultaneously account for external macroeconomics and price factors. Results from this study show that technical, scale and mix efficiencies are high among the major Asia Pacific airports. In addition, significant disparities in cost efficiencies were detected amongst these airports. These disparities can be attributed to the presence of country-specific effect and differences in allocative efficiencies. A virtual airport is then introduced as a superior performer to rank the efficiency performances of airports.     

Performance evaluation of Italian airports: A data envelopment analysis

This paper addresses empirically financial and operational performance of Italian airports using data envelopment analysis (DEA) methodology. With panel data for 2001–2003, the study tests variable relationships—the relative roles of dimension, managerial status and workload unit—to measure the proximity of the airports to the frontiers of best practices. The implications of the research for managerial purposes are then drawn to validate prior findings of the same relationships in other geographical contexts.     

Sustainability evaluation of rapid routes for buses with a network DEA model

This study establishes a network data envelopment analysis (DEA) model to evaluate the sustainability of public transportation services targeting rapid routes for buses in the Seoul metropolitan area. A network DEA-based optimization model is formulated to evaluate the sustainability of the public transportation service. By considering public transportation services from both the operators’ and users’ perspectives, this model produces results that reflect the interaction of three sustainable transport service properties, i.e., efficiency, equity, and environmental impacts. It is identified that the expansion of median bus lanes and the conversion of conventional buses into compressed natural gas vehicles could improve the sustainability of the public transportation services in the Seoul metropolitan area. Some limitations and future research agenda also are presented.     

Route-based performance evaluation of Taiwanese domestic airlines using data envelopment analysis: A comment

This paper provides critical remarks and remedies to a recent article published in [Chiou, Y.-C., Chen, Y.-H., 2006. Route-based performance evaluation of Taiwanese domestic airlines using data envelopment analysis. Transportation Research Part E 42, (2) 116–127]. In their article, the authors adopted data envelopment analysis (DEA) to measure the route-based performance of Taiwanese domestic airlines. The present paper points out the faults or errors found in their article, in terms of variable selection, model selection, scale efficiency and scale economy, slack analysis, Tobit regression, and terminologies used. It is hoped to make more appropriate and much clearer the DEA applications to airline’s performance evaluation.     

Performance measurement of a transportation network with a downtown space reservation system: A network-DEA approach

We propose an evaluation approach for a novel travel demand management strategy known as the downtown space reservation system (DSRS). This approach takes into account three perspectives, i.e., transportation service provider’s, the user’s, and the community’s and is based on network-Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) where the perspectives are inter-related through intermediate inputs/outputs. Two types of network-DEA models (radial and slacks-based models) are considered. An example is provided using data propagated from a microscopic traffic simulation model of the DSRS. The results show that individual node performance can drive network DEA performance and that this information can inform future designs of the DSRS.     

Airport performance in a tourism receiving country: Evidence from Greece

The aim of this study is to estimate the performance of 38 Greek airports. The analysis is performed in two stages. Firstly, efficiency scores for each airport are estimated using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) original and bootstrap techniques. Secondly, statistical assessments (Mann–Whitney U and Kruskal–Wallis tests) and a censored Tobit regression model are employed to identify which factors significantly explain variations in the airport efficiency. The results indicated the scope for substantial efficiency improvements. In addition, island location, connectivity, and hotel infrastructure in the area were found to be significant factors affecting airport efficiency.     

Accessibility gains and road transport infrastructure in Spain: A productivity approach based on the Malmquist index

Accessibility, the relative access to markets, is a strategic concept in all economic models with a spatial dimension and its prominence has been acknowledged in many economic research fields and policy debates. This paper is based on the assumption that infrastructure drives economic accessibility and, therefore, we can assimilate a production function approach where the road network constitutes a set of inputs yielding access to markets as output. Methodologically, we originally measure the infrastructure inputs accounting for the real used network and calculate a series of new final and intermediate demand gravity-based and locational indicators, which capture a wide range of economic transactions and represent different concepts of economic accessibility outputs. The value added of this paper is translating a non-parametric frontier approach (DEA) to a dynamic scope (Malmquist indices) by connecting the regional accessibility to the productivity of the road infrastructure inputs associated with each region. Results during 1995–2005 show a low relative accessibility of the Spanish NUTS-3 regions, although improvements have been greater over the last five years. Finally, we observe a U-inverted relationship between the accessibility gains during these years and the geographical localization.     

Performance evaluation of China's air routes based on network data envelopment analysis approach

Air routes are among the most important elements of civil aviation transport. Airlines' operations are mainly dependent on the structure and layout of air routes. This paper first divides the production process of air routes into two stages, allocation and transport, based on air route operational characteristics. Then, two network data envelopment analysis (DEA) models are proposed to analyze the efficiency of the system, allocation, passenger transport, and freight transport of 477 air routes. The research result demonstrates that the different constraints on intermediate measure in the network DEA models do affect the air routes’ efficiency significantly; Most air routes have high allocation efficiency and passenger transport efficiency, while they have low freight transport efficiency. Furthermore, the efficiencies of 82 airports are also analyzed after aggregating the efficiencies of the air routes.