THE MEASURE OF AIRPORT EFFICIENCY AND OPERATIONAL CAPABILITIES IN SOUTHERN THAILAND

Abstract

Eight provinces in Thailand’s south tourism-related airports are expected to push for more significant airport expansion. In response to the expansion of the tourism industry in each province of the southern region and the increasing use of services from people in the provinces and neighboring areas, the problem of airports in the eight provinces consists of inefficiency in operating systems and service management. The construction and expansion of infrastructure projects that do not meet the needs of service users need to be improved. Therefore, this study chose a performance measurement tool to help analyze the data using slack-based measure data envelopment analysis (SBM-DEA) to measure the efficiency and operations of all eight airports quantitatively. In addition, the research team used qualitative data to help determine the problem of the input and output factors of all eight airports and used the Tobit regression model to analyze factors affecting the operational efficiency of all eight airports in the southern region of Thailand. According to the study, Nakhon Si Thammarat Airport (NST), Phuket Airport (HKT), Krabi Airport (KBV), Surat Thani Airport (URT), Hat Yai Airport (HDY) and Chumphon Airport (CMJ) also lacked operational efficiency. Almost all airports should have improved input factors, such as number of check-in counters, terminal area, parking area lots and pit stops. Output factors such as number of flights and number of goods. It was also found that Chumphon Airport (CMJ) and Hat Yai Airport (HDY) were also the least efficient in operation. Furthermore, factors affecting the operating efficiency of all eight airports in the southern region of Thailand can be sorted from most influencing factors to least as follows: Airport condition (X4), security (X3), and airport staff (X1), respectively.