Airport Efficiency Research Articles

The impact of tourism on airport efficiency: The Spanish case

This paper considers the impact of tourism on airports efficiency. Using stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) methods, an input-oriented distance function was estimated for a sample of 35 Spanish airports over the 2009 to 2016 period. Air transport and tourism are highly connected. Results suggest that tourist-oriented airports may achieve higher efficiency levels than non-touristic ones. We also demonstrate a relationship between airline business models for tourist arrivals and airport efficiency. Airports with higher shares of "low-cost carrier" passenger traffic appear to perform more efficiently. By comparison, airports with higher shares of “charter passenger” traffic appear to perform less efficiently.

Efficiency in Asian railways: a comparison between data envelopment analysis approaches

ABSTRACTPerformance analysis has become a vital part of the management practices in the logistics infrastructure. Although there are numerous applications using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models to estimate efficiency in ports and airports, research on railway efficiency remains scarce. Most of the efficiency studies of railways assume that inputs and outputs are known with absolute precision. Here, we compare Stochastic-DEA and Fuzzy-DEA models to assess, respectively, how the underlying randomness and fuzziness impact efficiency levels in railway operations in six different Asian countries: Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Indonesia. Findings reveal that conclusions with respect to the ranking of these railways may vary substantially depending upon the type of model chosen, although efficiency scores are similar to some extent when compared within the ambits of Stochastic-DEA and Fuzzy-DEA models. Additionally, modeling choices on fuzziness, rather than randomness, appear to be the most critical source for variations in efficiency rankings.

The analysis of the cost-revenue production cycle efficiency of the Italian airports: A NSBM DEA approach

This paper measures the efficiency of Italian airports using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Particularly, the efficiency of an airport is evaluated at three different stages of its cost-revenue production cycle, i.e. cost-operations-revenue stages, while network-slack based measure DEA (NSBM-DEA) is adopted to generate efficiency measurements for the airports at each stage. Results show that the suggested modeling approach has a better discrimination capability than the traditional black-box DEA model and provides important insights for policy makers and airport concessionaires useful for improving industry performance and airport management.

Airport efficiency in Pakistan - A Data Envelopment Analysis with weight restrictions

This paper investigates 12 major airports in Pakistan for potential cost inefficiencies. We identify inefficiencies by benchmarking the productive performance of airports using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and data for 2012. To improve the ability of DEA to differentiate performance levels, we impose restrictions on the possible weights of inputs and outputs in the DEA procedure. The definition of these weight restrictions is based on additional information on feasible production trade-offs and relative input prices. To the best of our knowledge, this paper provides the first application of predefined weight restrictions in a DEA analysis of airport efficiency. The results suggest that there are cost inefficiencies at several airports, which are mainly caused by overstaffing and overinvestment in capacity. Furthermore, we find that the operational scale of most airports is inefficiently small, so that increases in traffic will result in declining unit costs.

Performance Efficiency Measurement of Airports

This article describes how to improve the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the aviation sector and also to source extra funding, the Government of India has paved the way for private investors through to a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model since the 1980s. This liberalization step in the Indian aviation market has minimized the institutional barriers which have hindered the freedom and flexibility of air transport operations among private investors. Now, competition within the aviation sector has become fiercer; the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Public Private Partnership (PPP) in Indian airports are not only providing varied services, but also attracting consumers with new infrastructure and full modern facilities. The importance of this article is because after privatization, no studies have been conducted to examine the efficiency of Indian airports by using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). An output-oriented DEA model is employed to determine the efficiency score of airports by taking a sample of 15 airports, including airports run by PPP, for comparison. Output-oriented DEA calculates the efficiency by maximizing the outputs for a given level of inputs. Therefore, this article contributes to the existing literature on Indian airports. Based on available data, three variables - length of runways, terminal size and number of check-in counters, are used as inputs and two variables - passenger movement and aircraft movement, are used as outputs.

A new methodological framework for evaluating flexible options at airport passenger terminals

Flexibility has been proposed as a suitable alternative or a complement to the traditional airport development approach based on Master Plans. Flexibility increases airports’ resilience to unexpected or unforeseen events such as economic recessions, regulatory restrictions or technological developments, to name a few. Although the benefits of flexibility have been discussed, the debate has thus far been conducted at the conceptual level. Furthermore, research which refers to ways of measuring the benefits of flexibility is almost inexistent.This manuscript proposes a novel framework to support the incorporation of elements of flexibility in the airport development plan. The framework was primarily developed for cases of extension – i.e., when expansion is not an option. It is organised in three phases: 1) definition of the decision inputs, scenarios and flexible options, 2) ex-ante operational evaluation and, 3) ex-ante economic evaluation. The framework is meant to guide airport managers assessing the plausibility of alternatives in keeping or improving the efficiency of airport’s processes.An application of the framework is presented. The case study is the Terminal 2 of the Lisbon International Airport. The objective of the use of this case study is twofold: 1) to exemplify the applicability of the framework, and; 2) validate the framework together with the interviews that we conducted with airport practitioners. The results evidence that flexibility can increase the efficiency by reducing the waiting times, which will increase the passengers’ dwelling time. The costs are compensated by the increase in the non-aeronautical revenues.

Measuring and Explaining Airport Efficiency and Sustainability: Evidence from Italy

From an environmental point of view, it is widely recognized in economic literature that an efficient management of regional airports produces positive effects both for congestion reduction in the larger airports and for better use of existing infrastructures. Regional airports generally suffer from economic vulnerabilities because of scarcity of traffic volume; besides, their small catchment areas often determine low cash flow levels. As a result, significant problems of economic sustainability arise. In this context, airport infrastructure providers have the incentive to hide failures in their strategic decisions, justifying the low share of cost recovery through market characteristics. By means of the DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) method this paper analyses overall technical, pure technical, and scale efficiency of 34 Italian airports in the period 2006–2016 in order to investigate how a number of factors impact on the efficiency and economic sustainability of regional airports. Our findings reveal that airport size, presence of low-cost carriers and cargo traffic have a significant influence on the technical and scale efficiency of Italian airports. In other words, air transport privatization and deregulation can positively affect regional airport efficiency and sustainability. This is to say that the market mechanism is a useful tool in achieving regional airport sustainability even if the empirical analysis of the effects of privatization and deregulation is recommended for evaluating such political programs.

Ownership structure and the technical, cost, and revenue efficiency of Italian airports

This paper investigates the role of the different ownership types of operators in the Italian airport sector. A meta-frontier conceptualization is utilized to consider ownership heterogeneity and compare airport efficiencies. Efficiencies are measured from multiple perspectives. Cluster analysis is adopted to uncover airport configurations with respect to inefficiencies. The results suggest that ownership heterogeneity may exert substantial influence on airport efficiency. However, while PPP airports have greater technical efficiency than airports operated by publicly owned operators, the meta-frontier analysis relative to cost and revenue efficiency does not provide evidence that PPP airports perform better. Indeed, publicly managed airports achieve comparable or better performance in terms of revenue efficiency. Findings also indicate that ownership is not the only factor affecting airport performance.

TÜRKİYE’DE FAALİYETTE BULUNAN BÜYÜK HAVALİMANLARININ İÇ VE DIŞ HAT PERFORMANSLARININ KARŞILAŞTIRILMASI

Bu çalışmada, Türkiye’de faaliyette bulunan büyük havalimanlarının iç ve dış hatlarda göstermiş oldukları performans düzeylerinin karşılaştırılması amaçlanmıştır Bunun için, çalışmada 2015-2016 yıllarına ait büyük havalimanı verileri kullanılarak, bu havalimanlarının etkinlik ve verimlilikleri araştırılmıştır. Etkinlik ölçümü ile havalimanlarının kendi aralarındaki, verimlilik ölçümü ile ise bir havalimanının önceki döneme göre performans düzeyi kıyaslanmaktadır. Yöntem olarak Veri Zarflama Analizi (VZA) tercih edilmiştir. Veri olarak üç adet girdi değişkeni (personel sayısı, terminal alanı ve uçak kapasitesi) ile iki adet çıktı değişkeni (yolcu sayısı, yük trafiği) kullanılmıştır. Analiz sonuçlarına göre, iç hatlarda her iki yılda da tam etkin olan havalimanları İstanbul Atatürk ve Adana havalimanlarıdır. Dış hatlarda ise, her iki yılda da İstanbul Atatürk ve Antalya havalimanlarının etkin olduğu belirlenmiştir. İç hatlarda en yüksek verimliliğe Trabzon havalimanının, en düşük verimliliğe Diyarbakır havalimanının sahip olduğu gözlenmiştir. Dış hatlarda ise en yüksek verimliliğe sahip havalimanı Mardin havalimanı iken, en düşük verimliğe sahip havalimanı Diyarbakır havalimanı olmuştur.

Optimization of Airport Shuttle Bus Routes Based on Travel Time Reliability

An optimization model of airport shuttle bus routes is constructed by taking operational reliability maximization as a main goal in this paper. Also, a hybrid genetic algorithm is designed to solve this problem. Then the theoretical method is applied to the case of Nanjing Lukou International Airport. During the research, a travel time reliability estimation method is proposed based on back propagation (BP) neural network. Absolute error and regression fitting methods are used to test the measurement results. It is proved that this method has higher accuracy and is applicable to calculate airport bus routes reliability. In algorithm design, the hill-climbing algorithm with strong local search ability is integrated into genetic algorithm. Initial solution is determined by hill-climbing algorithm so as to avoid the search process falling into a local optimal solution, which makes the accuracy of calculation result improved. However, the calculation results show that the optimization process of hybrid genetic algorithm is greatly affected by both the crossover rate and mutation rate. A higher mutation rate or lower crossover rate will decrease the stability of the optimization process. Multiple trials are required to determine the optimal crossover rate and mutation rate. The proposed method provides a scientific basis for optimizing the airport bus routes and improving the efficiency of airport’s external transportation services.

An empirical analysis of airport efficiency: the Croatian case

The main objective of this paper is to present an empirical application of the DEA method, by proposing an adequate model for determining the relative efficiencies of seven Croatian airports, and by analysing the obtained scores. To highlight different crucial aspects of airport performance in Croatia, four indicators are used for the period 2009-2014: personnel costs/airport throughput unit (ATU), total expenditures excluding personnel costs/ATU and total assets/ATU as input variables, while the output variable is total revenue/ATU. To overcome certain limitations associated with the relationship between the number of the observed entities and the number of employed variables, and to provide dynamic efficiency results that usually reflect reality better than static ones, window analysis is used as an extension of basic input-oriented DEA models. In general, the findings indicate that, over the observed period, performance rankings change, and, with the exception of the last observed year, the relative performance of Croatian airports is gradually declining. Consequently, the airports of Split, Pula and Zadar were found to be efficient (“best practice” airports) in the four years, and the airports of Zagreb and Osijek in one single year. Based on the efficiency score averaged across the observed period, Split turned out to be most efficient whilst Osijek appeared to be least efficient. Total assets per ATU are identified as the most significant source of inefficiency. Using both constant and variable returns to scale assumptions, this paper is the first to decompose the technical efficiency of Croatian airports into two components – pure technical efficiency, which reflects the ability of an airport to obtain maximal outputs at an optimal scale, and scale efficiency, which reflects the distance of an observed airport from the most productive scale size. The significance of these results is in the fact that they offer the possibility of directly identifying inefficiency causes, and can serve as a basis for an a posteriori correction of previously made disadvantageous decisions.

A note on the effects of the number of low-cost airlines on small tourist airports' efficiencies

This note considers the implications of the presence of low-cost airlines, and particularly their number, on the economic efficiency of tourist oriented, regional airports. Using a combined programming and econometric framework we examine the economic efficiency of twelve airports in North-east Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia over eight years and how this is affected by their use by low cost carriers. The evidence is that the presence of a greater number of such carriers can increase the economic efficiency of regional airports, and, thus in the longer-term, potential positively stimulate the flow of tourists to the airports' hinterland. This influence varies over time as the number of LCC fluctuates and also across the airports studied.

Study on an airport gate assignment method based on improved ACO algorithm

PurposeThis study aims to propose a new airport gate assignment method to effectively improve the comprehensive operation capacity and efficiency of hub airport. Gate assignment is one of the most important tasks for airport ground operations, which assigns appropriate airport gates with high efficiency reasonable arrangement.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, on the basis of analyzing the characteristics of airport gates and flights, an efficient multi-objective optimization model of airport gate assignment based on the objectives of the most balanced idle time, the shortest walking distances of passengers and the least number of flights at apron is constructed. Then an improved ant colony optimization (ICQACO) algorithm based on the ant colony collaborative strategy and pheromone update strategy is designed to solve the constructed model to fast realize the gate assignment and obtain a rational and effective gate assignment result for all flights in the different period.FindingsIn the designed ICQACO algorithm, the ant colony collaborative strategy is used to avoid the rapid convergence to the local optimal solution, and the pheromone update strategy is used to quickly increase the pheromone amount, eliminate the interference of the poor path and greatly accelerate the convergence speed.Practical implicationsThe actual flight data from Guangzhou Baiyun airport of China is selected to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the constructed multi-objective optimization model and the designed ICQACO algorithm. The experimental results show that the designed ICQACO algorithm can increase the pheromone amount, accelerate the convergence speed and avoid to fall into the local optimal solution. The constructed multi-objective optimization model can effectively improve the comprehensive operation capacity and efficiency. This study is a very meaningful work for airport gate assignment.Originality/valueAn efficient multi-objective optimization model for hub airport gate assignment problem is proposed in this paper. An improved ant colony optimization algorithm based on ant colony collaborative strategy and the pheromone update strategy is deeply studied to speed up the convergence and avoid to fall into the local optimal solution.

Airport slots: Can regulation be coordinated with competition? Evidence from Dublin airport

Slot regulations have implications for airport efficiency and for competition in aviation; this paper analyses the relationship between slot regulation and aviation competition drawing on the experience of the application of the EU slot rules at Dublin airport. It concludes the best way to promote competition in aviation is to avoid choosing an administrative basis of slot allocation, especially when a new airport is being developed, opting instead for market-compatible mechanisms, whether slot trading or runway charges that are differentiated by scarcity value.

Concessioning a Strategy for Enhancing Nigeria’s Airport Operational Efficiency - Lessons from Developed Countries

This study examines some concessioned airports in the developed countries and their operational performance level with a view to identifying the positive impact of concessioning on their growth, development and operational performance. The ultimate goal of the study is to provide basis for adapting the experience from lessons learnt to Nigeria’s airports as a strategy for realization of airport operational efficiency. The study advocated for the concessioning of two principal airports in Nigeria because of their potentials to enhancing the application of the experience learnt from lessons on concessioning in the developed countries. Data obtained from relevant Government Institutions and Agencies in Nigeria were analyzed using descriptive statistics. It was concluded that Lagos and Abuja International Airport are the two major airports in Nigeria that can be privatized or concessioned in order to improving their level of efficiency. Happenings around the world have shown the efficacy of Government disengagement in running business through the policy of concessioning and privatization. Airport concessioning and privatization has been considered as a major tool to enhance airport efficiency as witnessed in the developed countries. Airport concessioning has the capacity to enhance efficiency of airport operation; reduce cost of airport services to stakeholders; decrease cost to the government for the support of airport sector; and attract private sector participation to free public resources for public services.

Efficiency in nigerian airports

This paper analyzes efficiency levels in Nigerian airports using a stochastic frontier model that captures the impact of unobserved managerial ability during the period 2003–2014 based on the methodology presented in Alvarez et al. (2004) – the AAG model. Managerial ability in Nigerian airports is an important issue for sustaining efficiency levels because they are labor intensive rather than capital-intensive facilities. The AAG model was modified in this research to measure two exogenous contextual variables, namely regulation and hub. Under this modified version of the AAG model, inputs and outputs are disentangled in the frontier estimate while simultaneously allowing these contextual variables to control the impacts of managerial ability on efficiency. Results not only suggest that variations in efficiency scores are more sensitive to labor than to capital costs, but also indicate a negative impact of regulation and hub operations on efficiency levels possibly due to the small operational scale of Nigerian airports. Policy implications are derived.

Study on an improved adaptive PSO algorithm for solving multi-objective gate assignment

Gate is a key resource in the airport, which can realize rapid and safe docking, ensure the effective connection between flights and improve the capacity and service efficiency of airport. The minimum walking distances of passengers, the minimum idle time variance of each gate, the minimum number of flights at parking apron and the most reasonable utilization of large gates are selected as the optimization objectives, then an efficient multi-objective optimization model of gate assignment problem is proposed in this paper. Then an improved adaptive particle swarm optimization(DOADAPO) algorithm based on making full use of the advantages of Alpha-stable distribution and dynamic fractional calculus is deeply studied. The dynamic fractional calculus with memory characteristic is used to reflect the trajectory information of particle updating in order to improve the convergence speed. The Alpha-stable distribution theory is used to replace the uniform distribution in order to escape from the local minima in a certain probability and improve the global search ability. Next, the DOADAPO algorithm is used to solve the constructed multi-objective optimization model of gate assignment in order to fast and effectively assign the gates to different flights in different time. Finally, the actual flight data in one domestic airport is used to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. The experiment results show that the DOADAPO algorithm can improve the convergence speed and enhance the local search ability and global search ability, and the multi-objective optimization model of gate assignment can improve the comprehensive service of gate assignment. It can effectively provide a valuable reference for assigning the gates in hub airport.

The relationship between airport performance and privatisation policy: A nonparametric metafrontier approach

The assessment of economic and technical efficiency is a useful tool for selecting the most appropriate technology for airport operations. However, traditional models require that the units being assessed operate with the same technology. To overcome this limitation, one can use a non-concave metafrontier approach that is based on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to calculate the techno-economic efficiency and Technological Gap Ratios (TGRs) with non-homogeneous technologies for airports across countries and with different ownerships. The previous studies mainly applied DEA to measure the operational efficiency of airports. Our results indicate that privately owned airports have better technical efficiency than public ones. In addition, our empirical analysis shows that public airports in the Asia-Pacific area have the lowest techno-economic efficiency.

Design and Implementation of A-SMGCS Based on ICE

This paper aims at the problems of safety and efficiency of airport, designs and implements an Advanced Surface Movement Guidance and Control System (A-SMGCS) terminal, discusses the goals and key technologies about the system, including communication module design based on Internet Communications Engine, cache design of aircraft targets, and efficiency improvement of a large number of targets on the aerodrome. Finally, we give the test and conclusions of the system at a international airport in China.

INFLUENCE OF THE THREE LINKS AGREEMENT ON THE BEHAVIOR OF TAIWAN AIRPORTS: A TWO-STAGE DEA ANALYSIS

Taiwan is a small island with a relatively large number of airports. These airports show great disparity in terms of passenger volume and cargo tonnage. This paper in the first part evaluates the efficiency and productivity of Taiwanese airports using a panel data set, to verify the ones with lower efficiency performances. DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) and Malmquist index methods are applied. In the second stage the changes of these scores are analyzed in different regression methods to test the influence of the Three Link agreement between China and Taiwan. It reveals that airports in Taiwan with routes to China have lower efficiency scores but their productivity grows faster than that of the other airports. This paper also confirmed that airports on offshore islands have higher efficiency scores and productivity.