An efficiency analysis of Spanish airports

Abstract

Privatization and commercialization of airports in recent years are drawing a different picture in the aeronautical industry. Airport benchmarking shows the accommodation and performance of airports in the evolution of the market and the new requirements that they have to face. AENA manages a wide and heterogeneous network of airports. There are 46 airports divided into three categories and with particularities due to their geographical location or the competitive environment where they are located. This paper analyzes the technical efficiency and its determinants of the 39 commercial airports of the AENA network between the years 2011-2014. To do this, two benchmarking techniques, SFA and DEA, are used, with a two-stage analysis. The average efficiency of the network is between 75-79\%. The results with the two techniques are similar with a correlation of 0.67. With regard to the commercial part of the network, AENA has a high margin for improvement because it is below the world and European average. AENA must focus on the development of the commercial area and the introduction of competition within the network to improve the technical efficiency of regional airports mainly.