Measuring the influence of congestion on efficiency in worldwide airports

This short communication evaluates the influence of congestion on the technical efficiency of airports using three different approaches. To accomplish this aim a sample of 141 worldwide airports is used. The results show considerable signs of congestion inefficiency in some airports, highlighting the importance of studying this phenomenon.     

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.     

Relative efficiency of European airports

Using data envelopment analysis, efficiency ratios for European airports are determined. It appears that most airports are operating under increasing returns to scale. This is also reflected in the most productive scale size determined for the airports.     

Waste management efficiency at UK airports

The aviation industry has a reputation for being a major polluter. Using primary data obtained directly from BAA this paper examines the ways in which BAA (formerly the British Airports Authority) has improved efficiency in the management of airport waste. The paper also considers why, despite these improvements, UK airports still lag behind some European airports in terms of environmental management. The paper concludes that the UK government needs to take a more pro-active role in promoting a more co-ordinated approach to environmental strategy across the industry.     

Bootstrapped scale efficiency measures of UK airports

This paper introduces the bootstrapping methodology to analyse and test the scale efficiency of airports. The results from a sample of 27 small and large UK airports indicate that most large airports are scale efficient or operating in a region of decreasing returns to scale, while most small airports are operating in a region of increasing returns to scale. We relate the results to the current industry trends and provide directions for future research.     

Estimating airport efficiency of New Zealand airports

New Zealand's airport industry has experienced substantial growth over recent years, but few studies have analysed the operational efficiency of New Zealand airports. This paper aims to extend the study of Francis and Lyon (2007) by exploring the efficiency and productivity changes of New Zealand's major airports between 2010 and 2012, using slacks-based measure (SBM) model and the Malmquist productivity index (MPI). The findings suggested that the majority of New Zealand airports increased efficiency and productivity during the period under investigation, but should decrease scale of operations in order to operate at their most productive size. Decomposition of the MPI showed that most New Zealand airports experienced gains in efficiency but, in terms of technology, they have regressed. Four significant factors (i.e. airport hub status, airport operating hours, airport ownership, and the Rugby World Cup 2011) were identified by the Simar–Wilson bootstrapping regression analysis as explaining variations in airport efficiency. Importantly, the significant effect of the Rugby World Cup 2011 (a major sport tournament) on New Zealand's air transport demand and airports' efficiency has been demonstrated in this research.     

Accounting for size in efficiency comparisons of airports

This paper adopts the metafrontier model to analyze and compare the technical efficiency of small and large UK airports. The interesting feature of the model is that it takes into account the technological differences in the estimation of efficiency, and thus increases the accuracy in the efficiency comparison between heterogeneous airports. Results show that large airports are generally more technically efficient and have less operational wastage than small airports. Along with size, factors such as location, technological access, and capital investments could contribute to the efficiency difference between small and large airports.     

A comparative efficiency analysis of Spanish and Turkish airports

AENA in Spain and DHMI in Turkey operate a large majority of the airports in their respective countries. These two airport operators share some similar characteristics, but also present many differences with respect to their management strategies. For instance, the Turkish DHMI introduced a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model and concession agreements, which enables active private participation in airport management. In contrast, management and operation responsibilities at all airports in Spain –with a few exceptions-have remained with AENA. This paper utilizes a data envelopment analysis (DEA) to compare the relative efficiency of airports within AENA and DHMI for the years between 2009 and 2011. Based on the efficiency scores, it further identifies the sources of inefficiencies resulting from various management strategies and other external factors. The results indicate higher average efficiency levels at Spanish airports, but private involvement enhances efficiency at Turkish airports. The majority of the airports in Spain and Turkey operate under increasing returns to scale. Certain policy options, including a higher private involvement and improvement of the airport network by closing some inefficient airports, should be considered in order to increase the airport efficiency in both countries.     

Aircraft operational costs and turnaround efficiency at airports

The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between flight schedule punctuality and aircraft turnaround efficiency at airports, in order to minimise system operational costs and meanwhile to maintain a required level of schedule punctuality. Investigations of aircraft operational costs, passenger delay costs and airline schedule time-opportunity costs are carried out in this paper. A mathematical model is applied to simulate aircraft turnaround operations by considering the stochastic effects of schedule punctuality as well as aircraft turnaround performance. Two numerical examples demonstrate the performance of the aircraft turnaround model. Results show the significance of a proper use of schedule buffer time in maintaining schedule punctuality performance.     

Cost efficiency of African airports using a finite mixture model

This paper evaluates the operational activities of African airports using a finite mixture model that allows us to control for unobserved heterogeneity. In doing so, a stochastic frontier latent class model, which allows for the existence of different technologies, is adopted to estimate cost frontiers. This procedure not only enables us to identify different groups of African airports analysed from Angola and Mozambique, but also permits the analysis of their cost efficiency. The main result is that three groups are identified in the sample, each equipped with completely different “technologies”, suggesting that distinct business strategies need to be adapted to the characteristics of the airports. Some managerial implications are developed.     

Size versus efficiency: a case study of US commercial airports

The paper presents a productivity analysis using data envelopment analysis (DEA) of 45 US commercial airports selected from the top 15 large, medium, and small hub airports. Financial and operational data, such as aircraft movements, number of airport gates, the annual number of enplaned passengers and runway capacity, is used. Initially, a DEA is deployed to analyze the efficiency and performance measures of airports within each group by comparing and cross-referencing them with each other. We then extend our analysis to identify those airports that are not efficient and are thus dominated by other airports that are more efficient.     

Spanish airports performance and efficiency benchmark. A PESA-AGB study

This study uses a MCDA tool to analyse and improve Spanish airports performance and efficiency. Thus, a holistic study using MACBETH (with PESA-AGB) is used. This study has never been applied before in Spanish airports. Firstly, a literature review related to this study keywords is conducted, as well as about benchmarking concept applied specifically to airports. Secondly, several methodologies in used to benchmark airports are reviewed and compared. Thirdly, airport performance and efficiency issues are addressed and described. Finally, the MCDA-MACBETH (with PESA-AGB) tool is applied to 4 Spanish airports.Spanish airports belonging to AENA transported 263, 753, 406 passengers in 2018 with an increase compared to 2017 of 5.8%. General data enables to conclude that.Spanish air transportation system is growing annually and hence there is the need to improve airports performance and efficiency, also to maintain the high levels of quality to address the growing demand. Spanish air transportation system is growing annually and is it upmost important to maintain high levels of quality to address such demand. Through this study, performance and efficiency improvements are seek within several airport key areas such as Safety and Security, Quality Service, Productivity and Effectiveness, Financial and Environment.     

The geographical efficiency of Spain's regional airports: A quantitative analysis

Previous studies of the role of regional airports in the Spanish economy have focused on calculating efficiency using air traffic as the output and airport infrastructure data as the input. We present an alternative quantitative analysis based upon the geographical structure within the airport's market basin. We formulate a ‘geographical efficiency’ model that considers territorial variables within the airport hinterland. Input data for our model include the socio-economic structure of the population, intermodal transport links, industrial and tourism potential and existing leisure-related services. The output is the annual number of passengers associated with such constraints. The result is a relative efficiency estimate that shows uneven patterns of geographical efficiency amongst Spain's regional airports and also provides insights into opportunities for expanding some of these critical items of infrastructure. They suggest that some of Spain's regional airports may be better placed than others to compete in a liberalized market that exhibits a clear tendency in favor of coastal, tourism-based airports.     

Comparing efficiency of holding business model and individual management model of airports

This research compares the efficiency of holding business model to individual management model of airports, employing some robust non-parametric partial frontier-based methods to compare the statistical distributions of efficiency, under different scenarios, to find out which group of airports yields better global performance. The comparison between groups will follow a Malmquist index decomposition, which seems to be the most appropriate tool for within- and inter-group performance comparison. For this purpose, a sample of 145 airports from three continents is utilized. The results provide evidence that European airports are the most productive ones, and within this cluster, the individual management model presented a significant frontier shift with respect the holding cluster frontier, meaning that the former is much more productive than the latter.     

Are outsourcing and non-aeronautical revenues important drivers in the efficiency of Spanish airports?

This paper evaluates the influence of contracting out, or outsourcing, certain airport services and of commercial diversification strategy. Although most of the effort is being put towards applying non-parametric techniques in airport efficiency studies, we have chosen parametric methodology. We use a distance function, as it has known advantages. The findings show the positive contribution of outsourcing and non-aeronautical revenues on the efficiency of the Spanish airports' network.     

Benchmarking the noise-oriented efficiency of major European airports: A directional distance function approach

The EU Environmental Noise Directive (END) requires member states to produce noise action plans for all major airports every five years. Using that data, this paper employs a directional distance function approach to estimate noise-oriented efficiency of 60 European airports between 2006 and 2011. Technical change is calculated using the Malmquist productivity index. The results indicate that European airports have improved their noise efficiency between 2006 and 2011, and some degree of convergence in noise performance across countries is seen. Larger aircraft size is linked to better noise performance. Inefficient airports would also benefit from more stringent night movement limits.     

Comparative analysis of efficiency for major Southeast Asia airports: A two-stage approach

Within the past few years, the economy of Southeast Asia has been expanding rapidly with the rise in demand for air transport services. International airports are important driving forces for Southeast Asia countries' economies. Therefore, the competitive ability of these airports is very essential in terms of development and competitiveness within the region. This paper investigates the capabilities of these airports by a two-stage approach. The strengths and weaknesses of each Southeast Asia airport are evaluated by Data Envelopment Analysis – Slack-Based Measurement (DEA-SBM) in the first stage. This is a non-parametric approach to measure the efficiency of 9 major airports in the area including Changi Airport (Singapore), Suvarnabhumi Airport (Thailand), Kuala Lumpur Airport (Malaysia), Soekarno Hatta Airport (Indonesia), Ninoy Aquino Airport (the Philippines), Noi Bai Airport, Tan Son Nhat Airport (Vietnam) and Guangzhou Baiyun Airport (China), Hong Kong Airport (Hong Kong). In the second stage, Tobit regression is used to estimate the influence of multiple factors toward the efficiency of each airport. By generalizing and comparing two stages, the analysis allows us to evaluate each airport's efficiency in seven years, as well as the impact of multiple factors in one airport's performance. The implications for improvement are also obtained and discussed.     

Evaluating the multi-period operating efficiency of international airports using data envelopment analysis and the Malmquist productivity index

For the most part, airports are publicly or semi-publicly owned and operated with fixed assets. As such, airports have been often considered little more than infrastructure providers for airlines. However, as airports have begun to offer a variety of ancillary services including passenger transfers, re-fueling, parking, and shopping, they no longer play second fiddle to airlines. To come into their own, a growing number of airports realized their need to develop competitive strategies that can attract more air traffic and generate greater revenue. Such strategies start with the assessment of their competitiveness in terms of operating efficiencies relative to others. To help airport authorities identify major drivers for enhancing the airport operational efficiency and the subsequent competitiveness, this paper evaluates the comparative efficiencies of international airports for a multi-year period (2006–2011) using data envelopment analysis intended for dynamic benchmarking and Malmquist productivity index built on time-series analysis. Our study indicates that the productivity of an airport was influenced by exogenous factors such as shifts in government policies and technological advances rather than endogenous factors driven by improvements in managerial practices.     

Measuring the potential for self-connectivity in global air transport markets: Implications for airports and airlines

One of the strategies that air travellers employ to save money is self-connectivity, i.e. travelling with a combination of tickets where the airline/s involved do not handle the transfer themselves. Both airports and airlines, particularly low-cost carriers, have recently started catering to the needs of this type of passengers with the introduction of transfer fees or the development of self-connection platforms. The evidence provided by the existing literature, however, suggests that the degree of implementation of these strategies falls short of its true potential. In order to investigate how much self-connectivity could be observed in global air transport markets, this paper develops a forecasting model based on a zero-inflated Poisson regression on MIDT data. We identify the airports that have the highest potential to facilitate self-connections, as well as the factors that hinder or facilitate the necessary airline agreements at major locations. The results from this paper have many implications in regards to the widespread implementation of self-connection services and the future of the air travel industry.     

Technical efficiency and productivity changes in Spanish airports: A parametric distance functions approach

This paper contributes to the airport benchmarking literature in two ways. To our knowledge, this is the first attempt at using a stochastic distance function to measure airports’ productivity changes while considering multiple outputs. Secondly, we calculate the evolution and decomposition of the Total Factor Productivity (TFP) for Spanish airports. The average rate of productivity showed a slight annual improvement of 0.9%, and the core engine of this was 3% increase in technical progress rather than through efficiency. Results, by airport, identify those needing improvement, to be more attractive in the Spanish airport restructuring program.