Research On Operation Efficiency Of Regional Airports

With the rapid growth of air travel demand in China, more and more airports have been built. A large proportion of these airports are regional airports, or sometimes called medium- and small- sized airports. These regional airports play a principal and critical role in the airport system in China. But the operation efficiency of regional reports is usually low comparing with that for large airports, possibly due to poor management, lack of resources, high competition with other airports in the region, etc. The poor performance and low operation efficiency of the regional airports could become an obstacle of the development of the overall air transportation industry in China.In this thesis, we first carry out a comprehensive review and analysis of all the internal and external factors that might influence performance and operation efficiency of regional airports, and then define a set of input and output variables to capture the special features of operations of regional airports. Secondly, we discuss how the Date Envelopment Analysis(DEA) models and Malmquist Index can be applied to evaluate the performance and operation efficiency of regional airports quantitatively and from different perspectives. Thirdly, we discuss how the Tobit model can be used to build the quantitative relationship between the operation efficiency of regional airports, a single score derived from DEA models, and such environmental variables as local population, economy, and industry, so that we can make recommendations on what measures and strategies should be taken to improve the performance and operation efficiency of regional airports under different circumstances.Finally, based on the real data from the period of 2006-2014, we apply the DEA models and Malmquist productivity indices to evaluate the operation efficiency of the eight regional airports in Jiangsu Province. Our DEA models are modified based on the special features of the data set in our sample. We provide explanations for the evaluation results from the DEA models and Malmquist indices; and also make suggestion for each regional airport on how to improve its performance and operation efficiency. A Tobit model is also built and calibrated based on the real data collected for these eight regional airports. The explanatory variables in the Tobit model are selected based on the actual environment of these eight regional airports in Jiangsu Province. Based on the results from Tobit model, we make suggestions on what strategies should be taken at each of these eight regional airports to improve its performance and operation efficiency based on the actual situation and environment of each of these airports.