Airport Efficiency Research Articles

The effects of use agreements on airport efficiency

Bilateral contracting is integral to the working relationship between airports and airlines. In the U.S., the three common types of airport use agreements are the residual method, the compensatory method, and the hybrid method. Under a residual agreement, the financial risk of the host airport is borne by the signatory airlines, and in return, the signatory airlines pay reduced user fees. Under a compensatory agreement, however, airports bear their own financial risks in the absence of a signatory airline. A hybrid agreement combines the features of residual and compensatory agreements. For example, under a hybrid agreement, airports usually bear their own financial risks in terminal operations while the signatory airlines take over the financial risks in airfield operations. The aim of this paper is to determine whether these three types of business agreements affect airport operational efficiency. Using 2009 to 2016 yearly data of 59 U.S. hub airports, we find that airports with residual-type agreements tend to have lower operational efficiency. This implies that, although under a residual agreement, the signatory airlines pay favorable airport fees and charges, increased airport inefficiency may undercut any potential benefits of the agreement.

A data-driven approach for estimating airport efficiency under endogeneity: An application to New Zealand airports

Airport efficiency is commonly estimated via data envelopment analysis (DEA). This data-driven non-parametric approach is more flexible than the parametric approach, because it does not require an a priori function for the frontier or a very big sample size. However, DEA loses its discriminatory power when the number of observed airports is small compared with the number of airport inputs and outputs examined, particularly when examining airports within a country. In addition, the endogeneity problem may exist if one attempts to examine the determinants of airport efficiency. This study used the Slack-Based Measure (SBM) DEA-Window Analysis model to address the small sample issue during the first-stage analysis and used an instrumental variable (IV) in the Tobit model to solve the endogeneity issue during the second-stage analysis. Data from a sample of 11 New Zealand airports between 2006 and 2017 were used for analysis. The key findings showed the positive impact of tourism, regional economic development, an airport's domestic networks, airport privatisation, low-cost carrier services and the Christchurch earthquakes on New Zealand airports' performance and efficiency, whereas an airport's international networks has a negative impact. The literature contribution and policy implications are also discussed.

The Impact of Delay Affecting Airport Efficiency: Sustainability Perspective

Airport industry has experienced significant growth over the recent years. Nevertheless, few studies have analysed their operational efficiency together with airport delay condition. This paper aims to modify the original DEA-based Malmquist productivity index by integrating with delay factor as it is the critical irregularity frequently suffered in most of the major worldwide airports. The top 20 busiest passenger airports in Asia are the sample airports. The examination presents the result of the current situation that most of the airports perform well in term of operational efficiency. However, the results are significantly dropped when the delay is included, meaning if airports still have a high percentage of delay incurred, airports definitely face with several issues such as airline and passenger dissatisfaction or deficiency in airport performance. Without delay, airport can reduce CO2 emission, increase airport capacity, and improve customer satisfaction. The finding indicates that airports shall obviously eliminate or reduce percentage of delay in order to accomplish airport sustainability development for the future.

The impact of delay affecting airport efficiency: sustainability perspective

The impact of delay affecting airport efficiency: sustainability perspective

Competition among airports at worldwide level: a spatial analysis

Academic literature posed a great focus on the estimation of airport efficiency and productivity in the last decade. Using a spatial approach, which allows for the inclusion of a distance matrix and a shared destinations matrix calibrated for different distances, we estimate the impact of competition on efficiencies. By analysing statistical differences between a traditional and a spatial model, it is possible to identify possible competition effects. In this study, we analyse 206 airports for the year 2015 located in Europe, North America, and Pacific Asia sourced from the ATRS database. Our results show the existence of a spatial component that is not captured by the traditional stochastic frontier analysis. We find that competition has a positive or negative effect on the efficiency level of an airport, depending on the distance considered in the spatial model.

PROCESS MANAGEMENT IN A SINGLE INFORMATION FIELD PROVIDING TECHNOLOGI-CAL PROCESSES AT THE AIRPORT

Many airports in the world face the challenge of increasing their capacity. Airports are experimenting with the use of modern digital technologies. But only a few of them are implementing fundamental digital transformations that can prevent the current difficulties in civil aviation and improve the efficiency of airports. One of the most promising areas of digital transformation of the airport is based on the use of a single information space for technological processes, in which all the works performed at the airport are recorded and controlled. The study showed the need for coordination of decision-making at different levels of airport management, both between different services, departments and airport management, and between airlines and different companies that participate in this airport, in the implementation of technological processes for the maintenance of aviation and ground aviation equipment, passengers, Luggage, cargo, airfield, technical facilities, fuel and lubricants supply system. Such extremely complex technical tasks can be carried out with optimal financial and material costs only when using a single information space at the airport to ensure technological processes. As part of the implementation of this unified information space, it is proposed to implement the methods of "coercion" and "inducement" (pure or combined), which allow the most effective implementation of the potentials inherent in different information resources. One of the important tasks of airport management in this case is to prevent the occurrence of counter-threats from subordinate and dependent structural units and companies, which requires additional costs from persons who make the decision to monitor compliance with the restrictions imposed on technological processes. The use of a single information space to ensure technological processes at the airport allows you to reduce the time to find and implement the optimal actions of the airport management, and thereby reduce the risks of a significant decrease in flight safety in the area of responsibility of the airport.

A Bi-Objective Constrained Robust Gate Assignment Problem: Formulation, Instances and Algorithm.

The gate assignment problem (GAP) aims at assigning gates to aircraft considering operational efficiency of airport and satisfaction of passengers. Unlike the existing works, we model the GAP as a bi-objective constrained optimization problem. The total walking distance of passengers and the total robust cost of the gate assignment are the two objectives to be optimized, while satisfying the constraints regarding the limited number of flights assigned to apron, as well as three types of compatibility. A set of real instances is then constructed based on the data obtained from the Baiyun airport (CAN) in Guangzhou, China. A two-phase large neighborhood search (2PLNS) is proposed, which accommodates a greedy and stochastic strategy (GSS) for the large neighborhood search; both to speed up its convergence and to avoid local optima. The empirical analysis and results on both the synthetic instances and the constructed real-world instances show a better performance for the proposed 2PLNS as compared to many state-of-the-art algorithms in literature. An efficient way of choosing the tradeoff from a large number of nondominated solutions is also discussed in this article.

An analysis for Chinese airport efficiency using weighted variables and adopting CFPR

The demands of air services in China have increased significantly in the past few decades due to rapid economic growth. Unsurprisingly, huge pressure has been placed on Chinese airports by the increasing demand for air transportation. Hence, it is meaningful to analyze the efficiency of Chinese airports as well as to determine which factors are most vital to improve airport efficiency. To do so, a widely used methodology, the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), which is used for measuring efficiency in multiple areas, has been adopted. By means of the DEA method, the efficiency of 27 Chinese airports during the period from 2014 to 2018 was identified. Nine variables, including six input and three output variables, have been identified. Notably, the integration of the fuzzy MCDM method and the DEA approach proved to be optimal for developing a solid and reliable analysis. Therefore, an integrated CFPR/DEA-Window-AR model was developed to evaluate the airport efficiency of Chinese airports. In addition, a comparison of efficiency levels with and without defined criteria weights was conducted. The results proved that considering weights using the CFPR approach is both practical and reliable.

Evaluation of the Dynamic Efficiency of China's Airports under the Country's New Normal Economy. Based on Three-stage DEA and the Malmquist Index

Evaluation of the Dynamic Efficiency of China's Airports under the Country's New Normal Economy. Based on Three-stage DEA and the Malmquist Index

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.

EFFICIENCY ASSESSMENT OF CENTRAL AIRPORTS IN BRAZIL

> In this paper, we asses the efficiency of Brazilian airports, based on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Although previous studies applied DEA to Brazilian airports, herein we consider DEA´s homogeneity assumption, according to which units are assumed to operate in similar environments. As airport environment differs significantly throughout the country, we limit our analysis to six central airports. Still, our results are valuable nationwide, because these airports handle half of all flights departing from Brazil. As classic DEA is not recommended for small data sets, we use Multiple Criteria DEA, which has more discriminatory power. In our study, we found that only two airports in the State of Sao Paulo are efficient, whereas the other central airports are under-utilized, with an efficiency score of less than 50%. Results found in this study could serve as an important tool for public politics, as well as for private decisions in the airport sector. KEYWORDS. Airport efficiency; central airports; Brazilian air transport; Multiple Criteria Data Envelopment Analysis. MSC: 90B06

Hybrid simulated annealing and reduced variable neighbourhood search for an aircraft scheduling and parking problem

Aircraft stands and runways at airports are critical airport resources for aircraft scheduling and parking. Making use of limited apron and runway resources to improve airport efficiency is becoming increasingly important. In this paper, we study a realistic Aircraft Scheduling and Parking Problem (ASPP) with the goal of simultaneously determining the takeoff and landing time of each aircraft with consideration for wake vortex effect constraints and parking positions in the limited parking apron at a target airport. The objective of the ASPP is to minimise the total service time for aircraft. We developed a mixed-integer linear programme formulation for the ASPP. A novel improved bottom-left/right strategy is applied to construct solutions and a Hybrid Simulated Annealing and Reduced Variable Neighborhood Search (HSARVNS) is proposed to identify near-optimal solutions. Numerical experiments on randomly generated ASPP instances and on a large set of benchmarks for a reduced version of the ASPP (i.e. the classical Two-Dimensional Strip-Packing Problem (2D-SPP)) demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed approach. For the ASPP, HSARVNS can find optimal solutions for small instances in a fraction of a second and can find high-quality solutions for instances with up to 250 aircraft within a reasonable timeframe. For the 2D-SPP, the HSARVNS can find optimal solutions for 32 of 38 tested benchmarks within 90 s on average.

A centralised DEA approach to resource reallocation in Spanish airports

A centralised data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach optimises the resource usage for all the different units in an organization rather than for each unit separately (conventional DEA). This is particularly relevant for the Spanish airports controlled centrally by the Spanish airport authority rather than by individual airport managers. In this study, a non-oriented Slack-based inefficiency (SBI) DEA model is used in order to reallocate two transferrable inputs (namely, labour costs and operating costs) between the different airports. Firstly, we apply a conventional (i.e. non-centralised) non-oriented SBI model to identify the inefficient airports. Then, we apply the corresponding centralised DEA model to the inefficient units to maximise the potential improvements (slacks) obtained by reducing the total consumption of the inputs (allowing resource reallocation) and increasing total outputs. The results show how it is feasible to increase the total amount of passengers and cargo as well as the number of aircraft movements without increasing the total amount of inputs, just by reallocating them in an efficient way. Several progressively more relaxed scenarios have been considered, leading to larger total potential efficiency improvements. The model identifies airports that suffer from over-capacity and provide individual targets in each input and output to become more efficient. Sensitivity analysis to outliers or mavericks (i.e. airports with a strong specialisation) has been carried out. The size efficiency of individual airports as well as the overall company has also been studied. The potential efficiency gains and the optimal number of airports in a radical system restructuring have been computed and the optimal size operating point has been determined and compared with the actual inputs and outputs of the existing airports.

Eficiência dos terminais aeroportuários brasileiros considerando a percepção de satisfação do passageiro

A satisfação do passageiro em aeroportos é tema de grande importância para a comunidade científica e para o operador, dado que o usuário se trata de um importante cliente ao aeroporto. Observa-se, na literatura nacional e internacional, uma tendência em analisar a satisfação do usuário. Porém, é detectada uma lacuna no que diz respeito aos estudos que avaliam a eficiência aeroportuária com inserções de variáveis de percepção da satisfação do passageiro. Nesse contexto, o objetivo do artigo é avaliar a eficiência de 15 relevantes aeroportos brasileiros por meio do método da Análise Envoltória de Dados. O modelo permite analisar diferentes variáveis, sendo a satisfação dos usuários uma dessas variáveis (output). Mediante o modelo DEA-BCC, nota-se que 46,66% dos aeroportos avaliados apresentaram eficiência máxima relativa no ano de 2016, para os requisitos de análise.

Comparative Analysis of Production Possibility Frontier in Measuring Social Efficiency with Data Envelopment Analysis: An Application to Airports

The environmental sustainability is a globally important issue, particularly in the global warming. There are many institutions and people who are interested in the greenhouse gases emissions issue and policies that attempt to improve the problem. The aviation industry is not an exception. Under this background, there has been much research on airport efficiency analysis, undesirable outputs, and on evaluating productivity with respect to environmental factors. In the efficiency analysis models with the undesirable outputs in the airports, there are two main types of production possibility frontiers. The first type is the frontier based on the Shephard technology, which involves a weak-disposability concept, using a single abatement factor. The second one is the frontier on the Lozano-Gutiérrez technology, which tries to take the weak disposability into account by regarding the undesirable outputs as input. However, they have limitations. Additionally, no study has provided how to apply weak disposability correctly. To find out the limitations and give standard to utilize weak disposability, we compare models with two issues that must be scrutinized. In this paper, we show that these two concepts have limitations in making the production possibility area. To overcome this limitation, we propose an undesirable-output model using multiple abatement factors based on weak disposability with the slack-based measure (SBM) approach. We analyze, comparatively, the different social efficiency performances according to two issues among the three approaches in estimating production possibility frontier, using the Shepard model, the Lozano-Gutierrez model, and our proposed model. To provide correct standard of measurement and apply characteristics of undesirable outputs, we study not only theoretically, but also empirically, with data from Korea’s 13 domestic airports.

Optimization of departure runway scheduling incorporating arrival crossings

AbstractThe runway is a key airport resource and an efficient runway operation is critical to enhance the airport efficiency and to reduce delays. This paper addresses the problem of scheduling aircraft departures incorporating arrival crossings. Constraints for wake turbulence separations, flight time window restrictions, and holding queue capacity at runway threshold are explicitly considered. We present two integer linear programming models and a simulated annealing (SA) algorithm. Comparison tests are conducted for the south side of Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport and show that the three proposed methods can significantly improve the solutions based on the simple first‐come‐first‐served rule. Moreover, SA has sufficiently small computation time for real‐time deployment.

A hybrid AHP/DEA-AR model for measuring and comparing the efficiency of airports

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to employ an efficiency analysis and compare the efficiency scores of publicly or privately operated airports in Turkey.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses analytic hierarchy process, which is one of the widely known multi-criteria decision-making methods to calculate the relative weights of input and outputs. This study also uses data envelopment analysis and assurance region (AR) method to calculate the efficiency scores of airports at the empirical analysis stage.FindingsThe empirical results reveal that DEA-BCC and DEA-CCR methods produced almost the same efficiency scores, and 14 airports were found as efficient. Also, AR method was employed and under this method, it was only two airports operated by the private sector that were found as efficient. None of the publicly operated airports was found as efficient.Practical implicationsThe main practical implication of this study is that publicly operated airports must improve their efficiency levels in Turkey. This situation indicates that the government policy for the aviation sector must be changed. It is not a coincidence that all publicly operated airports are inefficient. To cope with this situation, it may be a useful policy that establishes a regional airport system or applies the privatization process to all airports.Originality/valueThe most significant contribution of this study to literature is that the AR method, which was never used before in a single country’s airport performance evaluation study, was applied for the first time. Also, this technique was applied first time to Turkish airports for measuring their efficiency levels.

Measurement of Airport Efficiency. The Case of Colombia

Abstract Since the mid-1990s, Colombia’s main airports (including those with the highest traffic) have been privatized, transferring governance to private operators. The remaining airports in the network (the smallest ones) continue with public governance. Based on this, the objective of this research article is to know, analyse and even measure the airport efficiency in a context of structural reform and at the same time compare this with the measure in airports with public governance. The methodology used to carry out the study is the Data Envelopment Analysis, and this methodology uses only “technical variables” (that is, only those related to infrastructure). The main results of the research reveal higher efficiency indices in the major (or more important) airports, almost all of them under private governance, although there is also a group of them (usually very small airports) with very low efficiency levels.

Measuring the Technical Efficiency of Oceania Continent Airports: Does Workload Unit Matters?

Recently, there has been a rise in interest on measuring the efficiency and performances of international airports around the world by researchers. As there are more airlines in the industry competing with one another, airports as well started to compete with each other in order to become hub airports which provoke them to increase their efficiency. The principal objective of this research is to investigate and measure the efficiency of airports from the view of panel data analysis. We have applies a two-stage analysis methodology to determine the factors that could possibly sway the technical efficiency level by using ten different airports from year 2007 to 2016 in the Oceania continent countries. Model 2 shows that GDP per capita and Airport Hub significantly interact with Workload Unit (HUBXWLU) and towards the technical efficiency. In a nutshell, airport efficiency is important to many aspects of the society especially businesses that depends on better connectivity, airport operators that depends on passenger volume and governments that depends on economic development all of which are tools to building a more prosperous nation.

A reliability‐based method for optimizing airport collection and distribution network

SummaryIn this article, a reliability‐based method for optimizing the road network is presented. A bi‐level optimization model for the road network, of which the lower model is the optimal user equilibrium of the road impedance function and the upper model is the maximum reliability of the network, is constructed and solved by using the genetic algorithm. Moreover, a model for measuring the travel time reliability of the airport collection and distribution network is built based on the improved Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) function, and the reliability of this road network is quantified. Results of our case study show that the mean travel time reliability of all roads in the collection and distribution network of Nanjing Lukou Airport is 0.74, showing a good status on the whole level compared with other roads. The mean travel time reliability of the roads near the airport is higher by 25% or so, indicating that the reliability distribution is significantly uneven. It is proved that this method has higher accuracy and is applicable to calculate airport collection and distribution network reliability. After optimized by using the bi‐level model, the reliability of the road network is increased by about 11%, showing a good optimization effect. However, the optimization process of genetic algorithm is greatly affected by both crossover rate and mutation rate. A higher mutation rate or lower crossover rate will decrease the stability of optimization process. This method can be used as a theoretical reference for optimizing airport collection and distribution networks and improving the efficiency of airport's external transportation service.