The spanish airport systema critical assessment of the impact of Aena's managerial decisions on airports' technical efficiencies stars stars

Resumen

[Premio Extraordinario de Doctorado, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona]. This Thesis addresses the application to the airport industry of alternative methodological approaches to the conventional models commonly classified as non-parametric and parametric methods. The aim is to estimate and to confirm the consistency of the Spanish airports’ efficiency across time. Therefore, several approaches are used in order to overcome specific limitations that the methodologies present compared to the other. Within the non-parametric techniques Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is used and as parametric models, Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA). DEA has been extensively used worldwide in the airport industry and some studies refer to the Spanish case. Nevertheless, the conventional DEA models present some limitations; for example, they tend not to incorporate time-related effects. The literature shows a lack of usage of SFA in empirical studies. Therefore, relevant insights are to be learned from the application to the Spanish airport system. One important matter regarding few studies considering the Spanish airports is the lack of individual relevant financial information published by AENA. AENA is a government-owned company and manager of all the Spanish airports. The degree of centralisation of management is to the extent that airports managers cannot decide commercial policies (e.g. price and quality of the services provided). Additionally, the studies neither critically question nor assess the reliability of the data regarding representing a fair and true view of how the airports are performing from an operational perspective. This Thesis is a compilation of chapters (four research papers) and one paper in progress. All the papers are empirical base with specific objectives in order to analyse the airports from different perspectives including the geographical location and the tourism attractiveness. Firstly, one major problem addressed in this Thesis is the reliability of the data provided by AENA, particularly with respect to investment (cost of capital). Secondly, to estimate the individual efficiencies of the airports and to evaluate the consistency of the most efficient airports not only across time, but supported by the application of the two stated methodological approaches. Managerial and policymakers’ recommendations are drawn to improve the overall efficiency of the Spanish airport system. All the papers have been presented in international conferences relevant in the airport and aviation industry and also in methodological conferences. With the exception of the fifth paper (ongoing work), all the papers have been sent to refereed journals (peer review) cited at the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) and they are currently under review. Some extractions have been published as case studies and dissemination articles (The Public Sphere Journal of Public Policy, February 2017; Inside O.R., March 2018)