Measuring Spanish airport performance: A bootstrap data envelopment analysis of efficiency

Abstract

This work studies the efficiency of Spanish airports for the year 2018. In the first stage, efficiency is calculated by applying the Data Envelopment Analysis ( DEA) method. As inputs, variables have been selected representing the airports' physical aspects, such as the number of boarding gates or the runway area. As outputs, the number of passengers, tons of cargo and the number of operations are included. By means of bootstrapping, it is empirically demonstrated that the airports operated under variable returns to scale. In the second stage, a truncated regression is carried out to determine which variables influence the efficiency of the airports. Previously a bootstrapping with 2000 iterations is applied to correct the possible bias of the DEA results. Airport apron and opening hours are relevant factors to explain the efficiency of airports as well as being a tourist airport. • Of the 37 Spanish airports analysed, 14 are efficient. • It is empirically demonstrated, by means of bootstrapping, that the airports operated under variable returns to scale. • Opening hours, runway length and tourist airport positively influence the physical efficiency of airports. • Apron size negatively influences airport efficiency.