Airport Performance Research Articles

Airport selection criteria of low-cost carriers: A fuzzy analytical hierarchy process

The selection of airport is an important consideration for low-cost carriers (LCCs) to remain cost competitive. The objective of this study is to identify and rank the airport selection criteria of LCCs. Based on reviewing the existing literature, five main factors comprising 16 sub-factors were developed. The factors were first validated by three industry experts from the aviation industry. Thereafter, a survey questionnaire requiring a comparison of the factors was administered on 28 executives who were involved in the strategy planning and formulation of LCCs based in China or Korea. The collected data were analysed using fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP). In descending order of their importance, the main factors influencing LCCs' selection of airport are (1) airport charges, (2) airport performance, (3) airport growth opportunities, (4) catchment area and (5) airport infrastructure. The top three sub-factors are airport costs, demand for LCC services and passenger throughput. The research contributes to academic research by providing a holistic assessment of the key considerations influencing LCCs' selection of airport. In addition, it implicates policy formulation of LCCs by providing a framework for assessment of airports that are suitable for LCCs’ operations.

A MIXED INTERVAL TYPE-2 FUZZY BEST-WORST MACBETH APPROACH TO CHOOSE HUB AIRPORT IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: CASE OF IRANIAN PASSENGER AIRPORTS

Hub airports are the ones that model networks in which most journeys go via a few central points. Famous hub airports deliver positive social and environmental impact to the communities along with economic effects. This paper is about to investigate indicators related to hub performance excellence from various angles, considering leading hub airports performance while determining the priorities in order to help airports especially in developing countries to find the way of progress. A list of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is prepared from the literature, which is prioritized using Best-Worst Method (BWM). The weights of these criteria are specified via application of interval type-2 fuzzy BWM. Then using five most important criteria, MACBETH (Measuring Attractiveness by a Categorical Based Evaluation TecHnique) ranking approach is used to analyse 19 Iranian international airports and find the most appropriate one for being hub airport. The results show Kish airport with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) code “OIBK” is prior to other airports and can be chosen as the hub airport that means Iran airports holding company is suggested to focus more investments in this airport to gain fastest possible benefits of an international hub airport.

An explorative analysis to identify airport business models

This paper develops a framework based on the strategic management and airport literature, that contextualizes the analysis and measurement of business models in the airport industry. The applicability and usefulness of this framework for interpreting the core logic through which airports create value is then assessed for the Italian airport system, using a cluster analysis on all 45 Italian commercial airports and a total of eight indicators reflecting dimensions of, and questions about, the business model framework. This paper promotes a more structured and comprehensive investigation of the strategic approach of modern airports, viewed as diversified and profit-oriented companies, and paves the way for further empirical analysis aimed at identifying characteristics influencing business model composition and the relationship between business models and airport performance.

Abiotic determinants of airport performance: Insights from a global survey

This paper explores airport business in association with its operational, economic, geographical and regulatory environment. The two-stages methodology engages a post-positivist approach and data triangulation. In the first stage, airport performance (AP) is measured with the tailor-made Airport Business Excellence Model in 137 airports spread over 90 countries. Subsequently, the AP scores are examined vis-à-vis an extensive set of abiotic/externally determined factors, such as ownership, regulation, size, seasonality, hub status, location, economic development, traffic mix and performance management system. The data is first processed with the Kruskall-Wallis non-parametric test to detect statistical differences in AP levels among airport subgroups and the relevant contribution of the abiotic determinants is then investigated by multiple regression analysis. The results indicate that the effectiveness of the regulatory mix is in close connection with second-order charging schemes. Furthermore, low seasonality and an extra-large airport size are positively related to AP, whereas non-hub status, the absence of formal performance management systems and the blending of public and private sectors in mixed ownership/management schemes act in the opposite direction.

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.

Multi-Criteria Decision-Making for Airport Operation Performance Using Triangular Fuzzy Numbers

This paper advocates Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) which evaluates the operation performance of airports using Fuzzy Simple Additive Weighting (FSAW) method. Assigned weights by decision- makers were in a linguistic form. These linguistic forms were converted into triangular fuzzy numbers. We chose three airports designated as A1, A2 and A3 and examined by four decision makers D1, D2, D3 and D4 under a fuzzy environment for performance against the chosen criteria. FSAW method gives similar decision results which shows that this method is effective, relevant and reliable for this kind of MCDM.

Acceptance of biometric technology in airport check-in

Airport operators have been constantly searching for different ways to improve operational indicators, as well as to increase the quality of services offered to airport passengers. Therefore, changes are required in airport planning, either in its master plan or operational improvement. In this context, we highlight airport technology, which increasingly contrbutes for changes in the airport system. Besides, airport technology is being introduced at airports to provide passengers with faster, safer and more efficient processing in order to contribute to a better airport performance. However, existing knowledge on innovation to enhance passengers experience is limited. This study contributes to fill this gap by analyzing the possibility of airport passengers to use biometric technology. Different types of airport technology, which are being developed to offer passengers a faster, smother, safer and more efficient process, are in the spotlight. This paper discusses the likelihood to use biometric technology in check-in procedures, technology non-existent in Brazilian airports, through discrete choice model, specifically the binomial logit. Using a database of 760 passengers interviewed at three different Brazilian airports, the results showed that 82.94% of passengers would use this new technology.

The Durability and Performance Test methods of the New Type of Pavement Filling Material - An Holistic Review

Airport pavement joint weaknesses are one of the important factors that affect airport performance and threaten flight safety. The traditional pavement caulking materials are mainly asphalt-based materials of heating construction type, which are prone to aging, loss of adhesion and other shortcomings in natural environment. Based on the shortcomings of traditional pavement caulking materials, this paper introduces the research and application status of new type of filling caulking materials represented by high-performance elastic polymer materials, with emphasis on its durability, performance testing methods. Finally, it summarizes the existing problems and prospects of the new type of pavement filling caulking materials.

Performance measurement of airports using data envelopment analysis: A review of methods and findings

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is the most commonly used tool for performance measurement of airports. We studied 61 articles and notes published during 2009–2017 that assess the performance of airports across the globe using ontology-based text analysis. Each article aims at achieving objectives beyond the mere calculation of efficiency scores of airports. On the basis of these objectives, four themes emerge – explaining the variation of efficiency through exogenous factors; mapping the change in efficiency over time; decomposition of efficiency using network DEA; and comparing DEA with other tools. We find that there is no systematic approach for selection of inputs and outputs, as they are largely dependent on the availability of data. Most studies computing scale efficiency report that airports exhibit returns to scale. Ownership form of airports is the most commonly studied factor for explaining the variation in efficiency; however, there is no consensus in the findings. Nearly one-third articles study the change in efficiency over time reporting similar findings that can be generalized. The research gap emerging from the review is that there is insufficient thrust on the application of efficiency scores obtained from DEA for improving airport performance. The main contribution of the paper is an analysis of the approaches used for performance measurement and the associations made with the efficiency scores.

Causal Factors of Flight Delay in Nigerian Airport: A Case Study of Murtala Muhammed International Airport

Delay is a prominent event mostly experienced at the airport by both airline and passengers. Globally delay is permitted at 15mins later than the scheduled time. Assessing the level of delay in the airport is a major criterion for measuring airport performance. Aircraft not adhering to schedule flight results in increased airport congestion, cancellation flight and flight delay. This study made use of primary data through well-structured questionnaires to obtain information from selected NAMA Staff at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA). Operational delay report for a month and Airlines flight were examined for two months under the MMA2 to know the deviation of scheduled flight time from actual flight time. Descriptive Analysis, Wilcoxon Rank test, Factor Analysis and Step Wise Regression were the statistical tools deployed for this research. Findings showed that on a monthly base, 63% of the domestic traffic flows are delayed. Some factors responsible for delay were considered: aircraft damage, bad weather, aircraft maintenance, VIP movement and fueling are the major factor responsible for delay of aircraft Movement.

Evaluating green performance of the airports using hybrid BWM and VIKOR methodology

The aviation industry is growing at a rapid pace worldwide. However, with the growing numbers, the aviation industry has also contributed to environmental degradation over the past few years. This issue needs attention as various agencies and scholars all over the world are trying to find means of protecting the environment. Therefore, there is a growing need to develop green and sustainable airports, which have minimal impact on the environment. With this in focus, this research has been taken up to explore the criteria for evaluating the green performance of airports. A hybrid of Best Worst Method (BWM) and VlseKriterijuska Optimizacija I Komoromisno Resenje (VIKOR) methodologies has been employed to calculate the weight of different criteria and rank the airports accordingly. Green policies and regulations are the most important performance criteria for green airports.

Analyzing human capital as a component of the aerotropolis model

A community's survival depends on trade and transportation. As competition in the global marketplace increased in the 21st century, the airport emerged as the fifth wave of transportation. The purpose of this quantitative, explanatory, quasi-experimental study was to determine the relationship between human capital development and the aerotropolis model airport performance. This study validated previous research that airports are important drivers of economic development. However, the study findings revealed a possible skills gap in the aerotropolis model. Findings also indicated cargo intensity at the aerotropolis model airport is less important to the economic success of the airport than passenger intensity.

Seismic performances of highfill airports during the recent strong earthquakes in China

High-fill slope with gap-graded fillback material and impervious clay sublayer is the typical structure of airfield in mountainous area. The seismic response of such slopes under intense earthquake loadings is one of the major concerns in engineering practice. This paper presented seismic performances of three typical high-filled airports during the recent strong earthquakes in China, and the damage/failure mechanisms are discussed. The main finding of this study is that, although no direct airport fill failures were found during earthquakes, cracks formed in airfield by strong shaking could provide passages for rainfall, where preference flows develop gradually and will significantly soften fillback material and impervious clay sublayer, inducing slope failure. Numerical and physical modelling and mitigation techniques are of high priority. After earthquake, timely site investigation, monitoring and slope repairment are greatly needed to prevent destructive deformation during the rainy period.

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.

THE 21ST AIR TRANSPORT RESEARCH SOCIETY CONFERENCE

The Air Transport Research Society (ATRS) was launched as a special interest group of the World Conference on Transport Research Society (WCTR) during the 7th Triennial WCTR Conference at Sydney in 1995. Headquartered at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, ATRS is a platform for exchanging research ideas and results and facilitating multi-national and/ or multi- disciplinary research collaborations. Professor Tae Oum is the ATRS Founder and Chair and Professor Martin Dresner is the President and CEO. ATRS has its networking committee consisting of representatives around the group including researchers, economists, consultants and professionals. Since 2001, ATRS has been producing on a yearly basis a Global Airport Benchmarking Report. The report provides over 30 performance metrics for measuring and assessing effects of the operating environment and service quality of the airport, and airport management strategies such as business diversification, outsourcing, etc. Initiated at the University of British Columbia, the annual Global Airport Performance Benchmarking project is currently hosted at the David B. O’Maley College of Business at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. A task force, led by Professor Chunyan Yu, and consisting of 16 leading researchers from Asia Pacific, Europe and North America guides the development of the annual report released every summer. More than 200 airports and 20 airport groups are covered and benchmarked among peer airports worldwide and within the three regions currently including North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific & Oceania. With the objective of providing the most comprehensive and unbiased comparison of airports performance regarding productivity and efficiency, financial performance, unit cost competitiveness, and airport charges, the report currently consists of three parts. The first part provides a summary of the research methodology and main findings. The second part, which is the main body of the report, provides comparative assessments of airport performance and characteristics such as traffic volume, number of employees, terminal-airside capacity, and airport charges. The last part of the report presents a short profile of each airport, its new development and recent awards.

Komparativní studie mezinárodních civilních letišť v České republice

The present paper deals with an assessment of the performance of Czech’s 7 international airports in terms of their technical efficiency. This paper aims to assess the efficiency of 7 selected airports in Czech Republic using the DEA method and Malmquist index. The data are collected for years 2015-2018. For the assessment of technical efficiency the data envelopment analysis method is applied with one input and one output. For input was chosen the number of employees, the number of passengers was used as the output. For each airport from the sample as well as for whole sample were calculated the values of the Malmquist index. With help of Malmquist index it was possible to quantify the total factor productivity change and to decompose it to technological change and technical efficiency change. The first part of the paper is devoted to a literature review on the use of the DEA method in assessing the performance of airports and air transport. The second part of the paper describes the methodology of the actual research. In conclusion, the results of the research are discussed. By applying input-oriented BCC model, at least two airports are identified each year as able to efficiently transform the given input into output, because they use best practices and appropriate processes in their operations management.

Granting airport concessions for regional development: Evidence from Peru

Airport activity has been linked with economic development in urban areas, and with their improved facilities (by construction or expansion), given the importance of connecting territories and the positive externalities for society. We investigate whether the change in airport ownership and management control has a direct effect on regional airports performance and catalytic effects on regional employment. By employing an interrupted time series evaluation design we address some threats to internal validity such as history and selection bias. Then with a difference-in-differences estimation technique, unbiased estimates of the causal effect for a concession policy on regional airports activity and regional sectoral employment are provided. Our main results suggest that regions with granted airport concessions exhibit higher airport activity and sectoral employment than regions with non-granted airport concessions; and, after controlling for different covariates (macroeconomic, socio-economic and infrastructure characteristics), regions with granted airport concessions have mainly higher aircraft movements, and more goods and hotels and restaurants sectoral employment than regions with non-granted airport concessions.

Assessment of airport arrival congestion and delay: Prediction and reliability

Air traffic networks are highly dependent on airport arrival processes, which are common triggers for capacity constraints and delay propagation. Arrival Manager tools aim to improve arrival flows at airports. To do so they need reliable, accurate assessments of potential congestion and delay issues. This paper sets out a methodology for predicting and evaluating the operational state of the airport arrival system. This methodology is structured in two steps: the prediction stage and the reliability stage. The prediction model is based on a Bayesian Network approach, which reflects the stochastic and time-varying nature of airport operations. It also provides insights into the interdependencies between factors contributing to airport performance. The reliability model uses a Multi-State System structure, as the airport arrival system has a large number of performance levels. It is developed via a Markov process technique. By combining these prediction and reliability models we can assess the characteristics of the airport arrival system: stationary state, availability, performance and degradation. The methodology is applied to a case study at a busy European airport, using real data from peak traffic months. Results for the scenarios analyzed show that the factors that have a greatest impact on delay and congestion are the level of saturation at arrival processes, the time frame of the day (which determines the arrival declared capacity) and the meteorological conditions. Moreover, arrival states of congestion reduce the airport’s ability to maintain optimal performance rates. The model represents an evolution from the traditional corrective and binary vision of performance analysis towards a predictive and multi-state approach. The results can be applied to derive operational strategies and draw conclusions regarding arrival performance and management.

Analyzing airport security checkpoint performance using cognitive agent models

Modern airports operate under high demands and pressures, and strive to satisfy many diverse, interrelated, sometimes conflicting performance goals. Airport performance areas, such as security, safety, and efficiency are usually studied separately from each other. However, operational decisions made by airport managers often impact several areas simultaneously. Current knowledge on how different performance areas are related to each other is limited. This paper contributes to filling this gap by identifying and quantifying relations and trade-offs between the detection performance of illegal items and the average queuing time at airport security checkpoints. These relations and trade-offs were analyzed by simulations with a cognitive agent model of airport security checkpoint operations. By simulation analysis a security checkpoint performance curve with three different regions was identified. Furthermore, the importance of focus on accuracy for a security operator is shown. The results of the simulation studies were related to empirical research at an existing regional airport.

Research on China Airport Performance Evaluation of Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction Based on Data Envelopment Analysis Model

With study on 15 China airports (groups) that were funded by the special funds for energy conservation and emission reduction in civil aviation, using the SE-DEA model as research tool, the energy conservation and emission reduction efficiency of the sampled enterprises were analyzed. More than half of the airport units did not achieve DEA efficiency, mainly resulted from the simultaneous technical inefficiency and scale inefficiency. All units that failed to meet the standard should increase the quantity of electricity conservation. In the future, the scale of project output should be expanded in resource allocation in the development of China green airports, strengthening research and application of new technology and new method. This study is of certain guiding significance for the scientific allocation of financial resources and the construction of green civil aviation.