European Airports Research Articles

Spatial aspects of european airports’ partial factor productivity

Abstract This research is devoted to discovering of spatial effects in European airports’ partial factor productivity (PFP). A set of study PFP indicators includes infrastructural (air transport movements per runway), labour (workload units per employee), and financial (revenue and profit per workload unit) ratios. We utilised a number of appropriate statistical tests (Moran’s I., Geary’s C., Mantel test, and spatial auto-regression) for revelation of spatial relationships between PFP indicator’s values. The tests were separately applied to samples of Spanish (2009-2010) and UK airports (2011-2012) and provided evidences of significant spatial effects in data.

Assessing airport snow and ice removal and its economic implications for sustainable airport management

For airports that regularly encounter storms with snow and ice in an average year, removal of this snow and ice is essential for maintaining safe operations. The purpose of this paper is to assist airports in determining whether they are appropriately managing their snow and ice removal resources and applying engineering best practices. Two airports in Europe and two airports in the USA that have approximately the same amount of annual snowfall and handle the same mix and volume array of aircraft have been identified for analysis of their snow and ice removal practices. Analysis was done for numerous parameters: cost per passenger, cost per metric tonne of cargo and cost per hour for which the pieces of equipment were in use. The analysis identifies which airports allocated their resources most efficiently and provides a basis for recommendations to the airports. The research contributes to academia by providing methodology and analysis of ways in which snow and ice storms influence airports, as well as contributing factors.

MANAGEMENT PROCESSES UNDER REGULATORY INFLUENCES � EVIDENCE FROM EUROPEAN AIRPORTS

ABSTRACT We explore the effects of airport charge regulation on the strategic planning, accounting and organisational change of European airports in the context of the common regulatory framework of EU directive 2009/12/EC. The analysis builds on a cross-national field study of 27 airports from 13 European countries that handle 50% of the European air passengers. We find that the design of regulatory regimes varies widely across EU member states and does not account for differences in the competitive environments of airports. The direct impact of regulation on strategic planning and accounting is highly dependent on the configuration of the different regimes. Our study provides reference data for finance managers, regulatory managers and management accountants on the risks and challenges of airport charge regulation. We also analyse how airports in the unified Europe deal with these challenges within their planning and accounting processes. Keywords Airports, Charge Regulation, Corporate Planning, Cost Accounting, Organisational Change, Infrastructure Management

The evolution of control mechanisms

Whether for bi-lateral or multi-lateral joint venturesor for public and private partnerships (PPP), control helps parties form strategicalliances and work together on a unique project while protecting their own identityand goals. Even though most researchers consider formal control such ascontracts, governance mechanisms, budgets, schedules, and other projectmanagement tools, few encompass informal or social control. This study takesinto account both types of control and aims to describe the evolution of formaland social control mechanisms in an international PPP project. An in depth casestudy of a concession project in a European airport was performed and includesall partners in this Euro-Canadian consortium. Results suggest that fromfrequent and repetitive interaction between partners emerges a social control thatprogressively takes more importance in the management of the project. This isnot to say that formal control mechanisms first put forward are forgotten butrather that they are the foundation of all inter-organizational collaboration.

Airports Environmental Management

Although airports contribute to region's economic development, they have a negative impact on the environment and on the communities around them. Environmental impacts such as noise, air and water pollution, and natural resources consumption are some of the implications resulting from the operation of airports that have the ability to constrain airports further development. In addition, increased public concern, regarding climate change, imposes more restrictions on carbon use and greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, many airports can no longer make full use of their capacity, especially when the mitigating cost is quite high. This paper is about airports environmental management and presents the results related to key components of the environmental plans that have been adopted in eight European regional airports. Key issue of the research is to investigate the differences and common practices in applied environmental strategies and systems. Even though most of the airports recognize the need to specify an environmental management strategy, not many regional airports have set specific targets about their environmental performance. Airports that serve more than five million passengers per year seem to have a more detailed environmental strategy; airports located in countries that do not have applied specific sustainable development strategies focus on facilitating growth, rather than taking measures to control their environmental disturbance.

How Do Housing Prices Adjust after an Environmental Shock? Evidence from a State-Mandated Change in Aircraft Noise Exposure

We analyze the adjustment of housing prices after an exogenous shock. Using continuous records of the housing market around a major European airport (ZRH, Switzerland) and an unexpected change in flight regulations induced by the neighboring country Germany, we find that apartment rents take about two years to stabilize to a new equilibrium value. After this period we find a constant markup for apartments in regions exposed to less aircraft noise, and a constant discount in regions with more noise. Alternative demand-side indicators like search effort and turnover adapt to the new macro situation and reach pre-shock levels after two years, whereas little evidence is found for supply-side effects.

Competitive drivers towards improved airport/airline relationships

This paper draws on a recent report from Copenhagen Economics, with which both authors were involved, to argue that the European airport market has changed such that airports are now subject to competitive constraints from a number of sources. While these will bite differentially according to the circumstances of individual airports, airport possession of significant market power can no longer be casually assumed; nor, therefore, can the need for economic regulation. Indeed, the costs and benefits of economic regulation need to be carefully assessed against the extent and nature of the market power it is intended to countervail. In particular, increasing attention needs to be paid to the risks of economic regulation hampering both the further growth of airport competition and the development of more productive commercial relationships between airports and their airline customers which have the potential to create added value for both parties.

Which factors impact on the presence of incentives for route and traffic development? Econometric evidence from European airports

In order to attract air traffic, many airports offer discounts and rebates on standard charges through incentives for route and traffic development. In this paper, we employ a probit instrument variable approach to a sample of 194 European airports, so as to study the factors influencing the presence of such incentives. We find that airports decide simultaneously on the standard charges level and the introduction of incentives. Furthermore, airport ownership, regulation and competition, as well as potential passenger demand impact on their presence.

Aircraft taxi time prediction: Comparisons and insights

The predicted growth in air transportation and the ambitious goal of the European Commission to have on-time performance of flights within 1min makes efficient and predictable ground operations at airports indispensable. Accurately predicting taxi times of arrivals and departures serves as an important key task for runway sequencing, gate assignment and ground movement itself. This research tests different statistical regression approaches and also various regression methods which fall into the realm of soft computing to more accurately predict taxi times. Historic data from two major European airports is utilised for cross-validation. Detailed comparisons show that a TSK fuzzy rule-based system outperformed the other approaches in terms of prediction accuracy. Insights from this approach are then presented, focusing on the analysis of taxi-in times, which is rarely discussed in literature. The aim of this research is to unleash the power of soft computing methods, in particular fuzzy rule-based systems, for taxi time prediction problems. Moreover, we aim to show that, although these methods have only been recently applied to airport problems, they present promising and potential features for such problems.

A combined statistical approach and ground movement model for improving taxi time estimations at airports

With the expected continued increases in air transportation, the mitigation of the consequent delays and environmental effects is becoming more and more important, requiring increasingly sophisticated approaches for airside airport operations. Improved on-stand time predictions (for improved resource allocation at the stands) and take-off time predictions (for improved airport-airspace coordination) both require more accurate taxi time predictions, as do the increasingly sophisticated ground movement models which are being developed. Calibrating such models requires historic data showing how long aircraft will actually take to move around the airport, but recorded data usually includes significant delays due to contention between aircraft. This research was motivated by the need to both predict taxi times and to quantify and eliminate the effects of airport load from historic taxi time data, since delays and re-routing are usually explicitly considered in ground movement models. A prediction model is presented here that combines both airport layout and historic taxi time information within a multiple linear regression analysis, identifying the most relevant factors affecting the variability of taxi times for both arrivals and departures. The promising results for two different European hub airports are compared against previous results for US airports.

An appraisal of the CORINE land cover database in airport catchment area analysis using a GIS approach

This paper presents a free available dataset, the CORINE land cover that helps dealing with the biases caused by pre-defined and heterogeneous census district boundaries in airport catchment area analysis in Europe. Using this dataset and a conventional GIS software it is possible to measure the size of the population within catchment areas at the same spatial level for all EU airports, allowing for consistent comparisons among airports. To illustrate the potential of the CORINE/GIS approach, the size of the population in the catchment areas of all European airports was determined. The empirical exercise has an aggregate perspective, but this database presents many other possibilities of analysis to perform in a case-by-case basis.

Seize diplomats smuggling ivory

One route for the smuggling of wildlife parts, such as rhino horn and elephant ivory, could be closed without the need for new international conventions or treaties (B. I. Kaaria and N. L. Muchiri Proc. 9th Int. Conf. Environ. Compliance Enforc. 204–208; 2011). Rogue diplomats must be stopped from exploiting their consular immunity to flout customs regulations and support this illicit trade. The scale of the problem is unquantifiable, but anecdotal evidence indicates that it is widespread. Diplomatic bags containing horn were reported to be evading customs checks as long ago as the 1980s (E. B. Martin Pachyderm 21, 28–34; 1996). In 2011, a South Korean diplomat was caught smuggling ivory (see go.nature.com/fuo43s). Countries could adopt the UK practice of giving full immunity only to diplomats who are accredited to that country; others who pass through British territory are subject to regular checks. Because there are few direct flights between African and Asian capitals, diplomats would run the risk of also being checked at European airports when changing flights. Apprehending diplomats carrying illegal materials would generate negative publicity, forcing countries to punish errant civil servants and reduce the problem. Immunity should not mean impunity

Aeronautical charging policy incentive schemes for airlines at European airports

This paper introduces the concept of incentive schemes that may accompany airports' aeronautical charging policies and develops a taxonomy of such schemes based on an analysis of data for 46 European Airports held in the RDC Aviation database.11www.rdcaviation.com. This taxonomy details the different types of incentive schemes that are in operation. It is clear that their use is widespread and that the magnitude of the incentive is often significant. A financial benchmarking analysis is undertaken for four selected airports to illustrate the extent of the variations between airports both in terms of the basic characteristics of the incentive schemes and in the periods over which the discounts are available.

Small regional airport sustainability: Lessons from benchmarking

Small and regional airports frequently suffer from limited traffic given minimum fixed infrastructure requirements and insufficient revenues to cover their costs. The question is whether such airports could be structured, managed and possibly financially supported in order to survive efficiently. Efficient operations contribute to decreasing the financial dependency of airports on subsidies or the likelihood of foreclosure. This paper applies data envelopment analysis, assuming that the aeronautical output is exogenous, in order to estimate the relative efficiencies of a set of 85 European regional airports over the last decade. We estimate the potential savings and revenue opportunities to be in the order of 50% and 25% respectively because cost increases were in excess of any changes in demand over the timeframe. Using second stage regressions we examine the reasons for poor performance, which include discretionary variables such as the failure to search for commercial opportunities or to produce ground-handling and fueling activities in-house. We also note that belonging to an airport system reduces efficiency in the order of 5%. Finally, the break-even passenger throughput over the last decade more than doubled to 464 thousand, however airports behaving efficiently could have covered their annual operating budget with a mere 166 thousand passengers annually.

Impacts of low cost carrier services on efficiency of the major U.S. airports

While traditionally many LCCs use secondary airports because of the availability of slots, spare capacity and low aeronautical cost, in recent years more and more LCCs are shifting their operations to major airports. This has made necessary for some major hub airports to attempt to attract LCC business. Since it is not clear whether such a move would improve or harm efficiency of the hub airports, this paper investigates this issue using a panel data of 63 major U.S. airports for the 2007–2010 period. After controlling the effects of other airport characteristics on efficiency, we found non-monotonic relationships between the level of LCC presence and airport efficiency. Efficiency of airport decreases as LCC presence increases from very low level, reaches the lowest efficiency point, and then increases as LCC services become dominant. Our empirical findings suggest existence of economies of airport specialization in either FSCs or LCCs. The even mix between FSC and LCC services at an airport appears to be inefficient. This result is somewhat contradictory to the findings of recent studies on LCC effects on European airports.

A holistic approach for evaluating liquid explosive detection systems

European legislation requires airports to screen liquids, aerosols, and gels by 31 January 2014. As a variety of devices can be used for that purpose, airports have to evaluate which devices best suit their needs. In order to so, a holistic “three-pillar approach” was designed and applied at a large European airport in order to evaluate all six “type B” liquid explosives detection systems that are currently certified and available. The “three-pillar approach” consists of laboratory tests, field tests, and stress tests. The laboratory tests aimed at evaluating the devices under standardized conditions. Field tests were conducted to analyze the devices’ performance and human-machine-interaction aspects in the real environment. The aim of the stress tests was to find out more about how the devices might perform upon a further lifting (phased approach) of the ban of liquids in hand baggage. The three-pillar approach could successfully be applied. The results from all three pillars differed with regard to their outcome variables and the information gained. The operational performance (false alarm rates and range of use) of the devices differed significantly between different devices and depended on the sample of liquids screened. Furthermore, some devices differed significantly regarding their false alarm rates between laboratory and field setting, which could be attributed to the usability of the devices. Security Officers’ overall impression and trust in the devices depended on the false alarm rates and the usability of the devices. At present, the amount of liquids carried by passengers is too small to have a significant influence on operation. However, the stress tests showed that an impact of the screening of liquids on operation has to be expected if passengers bring more liquids to the security control checkpoints. The results imply that human factors, as well as the environment in which devices are implemented, influence the performance of liquid explosives detection systems and should therefore not be underestimated. This again stresses the importance of a holistic evaluation of security technology with different methodologies.

Market power, competition and post-privatization regulation: Evidence from changes in regulation of European airports

This paper conducts an empirical analysis of the relationship between privatization, competition, and regulation drawing on data from a wide sample of European airports. Privatization policies may involve a shift in the way governments are able to intervene in markets, while airports – unlike network infrastructures – are subject to mixed degrees of competition and monopoly characteristics. In this regard, our main hypothesis is that the impact of privatization on regulatory reform will be dependent on the competition scenario that prevails in each airport. We provide empirical evidence that the stringency of regulatory reform is related to the level of existing competition. Large airports, with substantial market power, tend to be subject to highly prescriptive regulation and airports that have nearby competing airports tend to be subject to less prescriptive regulation.

Devising airport groupings for financial benchmarking

This paper uses cluster analysis to assess whether it might be a useful tool to select airport groups for comparative financial and economic performance studies. The research uses a sample of 73 airports, or airport operators, from all over the world. Nine key performance indicators (KPIs) are used to determine the clusters and the relationship between these clusters and possible explanatory variables is explored. Three clusters are produced which are similar for 2003 and 2010. One consists almost entirely of North American airports, one is dominated by European airports and one has a mixture of European and other (non-North American) airports. It is concluded that such an approach may indeed prove useful, not only just in the financial and economic areas, but with other aspects of airport performance that can be measured with a selection of KPIs.

European World Cities and the Spatial Polarisation of Air Transport Liberalisation Benefits

AbstractResearch about the consequences of air transport liberalisation in the European Union is already substantial in amount and scope. Nevertheless, spatial implications of this liberalisation have not been fully addressed yet. By analysing information from the OAG database, this paper measures the geographic concentration of air routes and seating offers supplied under competition conditions among European airports. Our analysis demonstrates that competition is mainly restricted to European World Cities, the ones which concentrate high‐rank functions in the capitalist world‐economy.

Efficiency and Robustness in a Support Platform for Intelligent Airport Ground Handling

One of the effects of the development of air traffic during recent years has been the increase of congestion on major airports and their aprons, where ground handling operations take place. Efficiency and safety issues become important on the aprons. The “Integrated Airport Apron Safety Fleet Management—AAS” project aims at setting a decision support system for efficient and safe management of apron traffic, taking advantage of information gathered by “intelligent” vehicles equipped with on-board positioning and monitoring systems. In this project, we optimize the assignment of vehicles to apron operations. We present a mathematical formulation of the problem and sketch a fast sequential heuristic, which provides efficient assignments based on real-time data on position and status of vehicles and operations. We then discuss how the procedure can reach good trade-offs between efficiency and robustness against unpredicted, but frequent, delays occurring in real time at airports. The proposed approach has been applied to a major European airport (Berlin's Tegel), leading to efficiency improvements and reduction of expected delays due to handling operations.