Productivity Of Airports Research Articles

Changes in land use typology of global airports: An empirical investigation with implications for the aerotropolis concept

Aerotropolis is an urban development concept characterised by the concentration of land uses fostering economic activities around airports. However, limited empirical evidence exists about the formation of aerotropolises and their effects on the productivity of airports. This study addresses the gaps by examining changes in land use patterns around 75 major airports globally, using data extracted from Google Earth for two time periods: 2004 and 2014. A Two-Step cluster analysis technique was applied to identify natural groupings of the airports in terms of their land use patterns for both periods. Changes in cluster membership were observed between the periods to examine the process of aerotropolis formation. A multivariate multiple linear regression (MMLR) model is estimated to identify factors contributing to aerotropolis formation process. Finally, the effects of the aerotropolis formation process on airport productivity is estimated in a two-stage least square (2SLS) regression model. Cluster analysis results show that airport land side development can be classified into three groups: Island airports (surrounded by largely vacant land), Waterfront airports (adjacent to a large body of water), and Built form airports (well-developed residential, commercial and industrial land uses). Overall, built-up areas increased by 2.1% between 2004 and 2014, and only three airports transitioned from Island to Built form – suggesting a weak evidence of the aerotropolis formation process. Developable land surrounding the airports and city population growth rate contributed significantly to this process, which consequently contributed to the productivity of airports. In conclusion, aerotropolises are a promising concept, yet unreal. It needs to be integrated with city plans to direct development, and thereby, to make it a reality.

Productivity Analysis of Major Airports in Korea Using Malmquist Productivity Indices

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyze the productivity of major airports in Korea using Malmquist Productivity Index methodology and draw implications for airport operations and planning through comparison with existing research results. Also, The results of this study confirm the academic differences between productivity and efficiency. The results of this study provide policy assistance such as attracting, expanding and relocating airports, and eliciting academic implications. Design/Methodology/Approach - We analyzed the productivity of airports in Korea by applying the Malmquist Productivity Index Analysis Methodology among DEA methodologies. Not only individual airports, but also group-specific airports were analyzed. In addition, we compared the results of airport efficiency studies analyzed using efficiency analysis methods such as CCR/BCC. Findings - The larger the airport, the more productive it is. The productivity of the base airport (large) and the productivity of the general airport (medium) and the general airport (small) is inversely proportional. These results resulted in significant differences from existing efficiency studies. For example, an airport with very low efficiency can be measured very high in productivity with only a little performance. In general, however, highly efficient airports also tended to have high productivity, which means there is a correlation between efficiency and productivity. Research Implications - This study identified the relationship between efficiency and productivity by studying productivity aspects, not efficiency. As a result, productivity analysis as well as efficiency analysis should be accompanied for proper airport evaluation. As a result of this study will help not only the operation of the airport but also the planning and expansion of the airport.

Measuring the productivity of selected airports in Turkey

The aim of this study is to analyse the productivity of airports, operated by the General Directorate of State Airports Authority (DHMI in Turkish acronym) in Turkey, for a period from 2014 to 2018 using a hybrid method called Weight Restricted EATWOS without Consideration of Satisficing Levels and to offer improvement suggestions. The productivity of the airports was also measured using both equally weighted EATWOS without consideration of satisficing levels and the model of input-oriented DEA based on the assumption of constant returns to scale to compare the results obtained using the proposed model with those obtained using traditional methods.

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.

Efficiency Evaluation of International Airports in Iran using Data Envelopment Analysis

This paper follows two main purposes. These two purposes include the analysis of the efficiency and ranking 7 domestic airports in Iran that have international airlines during 2010 - 2013. However, the indicated airports are under the ownership of the main company of the airports in the country and do not include all Iranian airports. On the other hand the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is used as a non-parametric mathematical programming technique to evaluate the performance of international airports. Basically, regarding the first purpose an overall assessment of the efficiency of the airports is followed and the amount of the airport efficiency is measured and compared based on Russell’s model in DEA. Then in line with the second purpose the efficient airports are ranked based on the super-efficiency method. The structure of international airports as decision making units in DEA has been obtained by four inputs and three outputs. The results indicated that the Mehrabad, Mashhad and Bandarabbas airports had the full efficiency during all periods and these units have the first, second and third ranks, respectively. The Malmquist index of airports in these four periods can be obtained in order to better understanding of the productivity and performance of international airports.

Performance of Polish regional airports after accessing the European Union: Does liberalisation impact on airports' efficiency?

The accession of Poland and nine other countries into the structures of the European Union in May 2004 resulted in their airspaces being covered by the Open Skies agreement. Deregulation and the entry of low cost carriers into these markets contributed to a dynamic growth in air traffic, which most strongly influenced the operations and development of regional airports. In order to determine the impact of EU accession and the Open Skies agreement on the productivity of airports, the performance of four Polish regional airports was analysed and compared during the periods 2000–2004 and 2005–2010, using the two-stage PCA–DEA method. The aim of this paper is also an attempt to address adequate variables for the two-stage DEA. The reference group comprised 11 German airports, which represented a similar but mature market.

Air transport performance: current evidences about the efficiency of Italian airports

This paper analyses the performance of Italian airports. We construct and estimate a data envelopment analysis, under Charnes, Cooper and Rhodes (CCR), Banker, Charnes and Cooper (BCC) and superfficiency models, in order to obtain efficiency scores for 14 airports for the period 2009–2011. In addition, we use a Malmquist Index for measuring the evolution of the productivity of individual airports along the time. The results show that Genoa, Rome, Naples, Bergamo and Bologna exhibit the best practices when distributing efficiently their production factor available to face an increase in the demand, keeping this behavior during all the period under study. These airports are efficient in both constant return to scale (CRS) and variable return to scale (VRS), indicating that scale is the prevailing source of efficiency.

APPLYING THE METHOD OF MEASURING AIRPORT PRODUCTIVITY IN THE BALTIC REGION

The author of the article describes the theoretical assumptions of the DEA method used for measuring the productivity of airports described in the article ‘Research into the methods of analysing the productivity indicators of transport terminals’ (Jaržemskienė 2009). The essential insights presented in the above mentioned paper reveal that Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is a relatively new ‘data oriented’ approach to evaluating the performance of the so-called Decision Making Units (DMU) that convert multiple inputs into multiple outputs. The article focuses on the findings of the study carried out by the author in accordance with those assumptions. Research represents the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method testing 15 selected airports situated in the Baltic Region, including Vilnius, Kaunas, Palanga, Riga, Tallinn, St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Turku, Stockholm, Malme, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Gdansk, Warsaw and Minsk. Airport productivity indicators are ranked considering importance and using the method of Delphi expert survey made of two rounds. The author presented the following indicators (expressed as ‘ratio’) as the major ones estimated by PAX/LAND, AIR/LAND, PAX/AIR, PAX/RW, PAX/RWA, GA and INTER experts. The succeeding indicators were introduced by PAX/TERMAREA, PAX/GATES, AIR/RW, AIR/RWA, AIR/TERMAREA, AIR/GATES, FR/LAND and FR/RW. 10 indicators were accepted as the most important and selected from the current set in the following sequence: AIR/LAND, AIR/RW, PAX/RW, PAX/LAND, AIR/RWA, PAX/AIR, PAX/RWA, AIR/TERMAREA, PAX/GATES and PAX/TERMAREA. AIR/LAND and AIR/RW were submitted as two main indicators. The acronyms are explained as follows: LAND – airport area, RWA – runway length, PAX – the number of passengers, AIR – the number of aircraft take-offs and landings, RW – the number of runways, GATES – the number of gates, FR – the amount of freight served, TERMAREA – the area of passenger terminal, GA – a general aviation market share of airport served aircraft by percentage, INTER – the percentage of international passengers considering all passengers served by airports. After two key productivity indicators were chosen conducting the expert survey, airport productivity was compared applying the DEA method.

Estimating indices of airport productivity in Greater China

In this paper, we measure the productivity changes of 30 airports in Greater China during 2000–2006 by computing their Malmquist productivity indices using parametric output distance functions. On average, the productivity of airports grew at 10.3% annually over our period. In addition, decomposing the Malmquist index did not provide evidence supporting any “catching-up” in technical efficiency between regional airports and major hubs.

Effects of Government Quality and Institutional Choice on Efficiency of the U.S. Commercial Airports

Major commercial airports in the U.S. are operated by local governments either directly as government branches or indirectly via airport or port authorities. Recent research has uncovered that those institutional arrangements on airport governance structure matter for airport efficiency. In this paper, we test the hypothesis that connects efficiency of airports to government quality measured by degree of corruption. We first develop a theory which predicts the impacts of corruption on productivity and variable input allocation of airports under the three alternative institutional arrangements being used in the United States. We then test the predictions by estimating a stochastic variable cost frontier model which incorporates both technical and allocative efficiency of airports. The empirical evidences confirm the theoretical predictions by revealing the following: (1) in the absence of corruption, productivity of airport authorities is significantly higher than that of city-owned and operated airports; (2) corruption is found to lower productivity of airport authorities but not to affect productivity of airports under other two institutional choices; (3) in the absence of corruption, airports under all the three institutional arrangements over-utilize direct labor relative to non-labor inputs including outsourcing of services; and (4) corruption lowers the degree of the relative over-utilization of labor inputs in airports.

Use of Individual Flight Corridors to Avoid Vortex Wakes

Vortex wakes of aircraft pose a hazard to following aircraft until the energetic parts of their flow fields have decayed to a harmless level. It is suggested here that in-trail spacings between aircraft can be significantly and safely reduced by designing an individual, vortex-free flight corridor for each aircraft. Because each aircraft will then have its own flight corridor, which is free of vortex wakes while in use by the assigned aircraft, the time intervals between aircraft operations can be safely reduced to the order of seconds. The productivity of airports can then be substantially increased. How large the offset distances between operational corridors need to be to have them vortex free, and how airports need to be changed to accommodate an individual flight-corridor process for landing and takeoff operations, are explored. Estimates are then made of the productivity of an individual flight-corridor system as a function of the in-trail time interval between operations for various values of wake decay time, runway width, and the velocity of a sidewind. The results confirm the need for short time intervals between aircraft operations if smaller offset distances and increased productivity are to be achieved.

Total Factor Productivity and Efficiency of Australian Airports

By using a Malmquist total factor productivity index and data envelopment analysis it is possible to investigate the efficiency and productivity of Australian airports during the 1990s. The results from this analysis indicate that these airports recorded strong growth in technological change and total factor productivity, but did not fare all that well in terms of growth in technical and scale efficiency during the 1990s. At the international level it appears that Australia’s largest airports fare reasonably well in comparison to airports overseas, although they still possess the potential to realise further gains.

Developing measures of airport productivity and performance: an application of data envelopment analysis

Abstract Many studies have investigated the financial results and economic productivity of airlines but few have investigated the productivity or performance of airports, and how changes in the industry may have affected them. Most airports measure performance strictly in accounting terms by looking at only total costs and revenues and the resulting surpluses or deficits. Few utilize any type of productivity measure or performance indicator. This paper applies Data Envelopment Analysis to assess the performance of airports. It is used to construct performance indices on the basis of the multiple outputs which airports produce and the multiple inputs which they utilize. In particular we develop productivity measures for terminals and airside operations. The performance measures are then used in a second stage Tobit regression in which environmental, structural and managerial variables are included. The regression results provide a ‘net’ performance index and also identify which variables the managers have some control over and what the relative importance of each variable is in affecting performance. The data set contains a panel of 21 U.S. airports over a five-year period.

Measuring total factor productivity of airports— an index number approach

Abstract There is an increasing trend towards corporatisation and privatisation of airports in an effort to improve performance. However, the normal financial reporting requirements associated with these forms of organisation are not sufficient indicators of the performance of airports since profitability can be more a function of the exercise of market power than a sign of productive efficiency. Also, there are concerns that efforts to regulate the prices charged by airports can result in under-investment and declining service standards. This makes it important to monitor the cost-efficiency, cost-effectiveness and service-effectiveness of airports. There is a growing literature on these topics, but so far there has been little attempt to apply the concepts of total factor productivity to the airport sector. We use a non-parametric index number method to illustrate how such a global measure can be used to investigate the role of disaggregated performance measures that often are very useful to managers and to those monitoring airport operations.