Does privatization make Brazilian airports more efficient? (original) (raw)

Managerial performance of airports in Brazil before and after concessions

Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 2018

This paper examines the performance of airports under Brazil's state enterprise for airport infrastructure, Infraero, which managed the country's main airports until major airport concessions began to be granted in 2012. The dataset comprised the 60 main airports that were under Infraero administration in 2009 and 2015, three years before and three years after concessions began to come into effect. In that period, concessions were granted on 5 major airports previously administered by Infraero, which are among the main hubs in Brazil, and one smaller, new airport. DEA modelling was used to analyse performance in the study years. In 2009, the airports considered accounted for 56% of the market; in 2015, the percentage fell to 52%. The findings show that not only did this set of airports lose market share, their performance declined significantly. In the study period, the enterprise's overall performance index fell from 71.48% to 62.73%, as it failed to encounter pathways to improvement in the scenario of concessions of airports to private administration. 1. Introduction Airport privatisations and concessions to private management have been discussed and recommended as mechanisms to improve the efficiency of this important component in the air transport production chain. Particularly since the 1980s, the United States, Brazil and other countries with large numbers of airports have adopted mixed models comprising public, private and shared management. The Brazilian case displays a particular feature in this process of introducing private administration of major airports: until 2012 these were administered monopolistically by the state airport infrastructure enterprise, Empresa Brasileira de Infraestrutura Aeroportuária (Infraero). In Brazil, the process would suspend Infraero's concession to administer a given airport and hold a public call for tenders, which then set conditions and specified a process to transition administration from Infraero to a majority privateequity consortium. Until the process of airport concessions began in Brazil, Infraero was one of the world's largest airport administrators, which raises the question as to what has happened to the enterprise and to the airports under its administration. Did performance improve or worsen? The Brazilian government's expectation was that, with private participation in managing Brazilian airports, Infraero could be reorganised and improve its performance. Using data envelopment analysis (DEA) and descriptive statistical analysis, this paper examines the performance of 60 airports administered by Infraero, before and after the start of airport concessions to private management. The study also uses simulation to evaluate howwith the withdrawal of four airports from the Infraero portfolio, which were tendered in 2017the remaining airports not subject to concession will perform, given no major changes in administration by Infraero. This analysis yields indications that help gauge the dimensions of the enterprise's continuing degradation since the beginning of major airport concessions and the steady losses it has been posting since 2013. Although some

Managerial efficiency of Brazilian airports

Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 2003

The efficiency of 35 Brazilian domestic airports was discussed with a view to identifying avenues to improvement in two dimensions. The first of these is improved management, which shows in the airportÕs ability to generate financial returns. The second is the physical dimension, which shows the level of utilization of airport infrastructure. The data envelopment analysis methodology was used to measure distance from the airport efficient frontier and to enable avenues to managerial improvement to be identified.

An application of DEA to measure the efficiency of Spanish airports prior to privatization

Journal of Air Transport Management, 2001

Most airports compare their e$ciency according to the results of some partial productivity ratios. However, this approach does not provide a good understanding of their overall performance. In this paper, we apply data envelopment analysis to analyze the technical e$ciency and performance of each individual Spanish airport. Results are used to extract some policy considerations before the process of privatization of the Spanish airport system.

Infrastructure and Flight Consolidation Efficiency of Public and Private Brazilian International Airports: A Two-Stage DEA and Malmquist Index Approach

Journal of Advanced Transportation, 2020

Air transportation is a paramount element within the transport infrastructure of any country. In recent years, several factors have led to an increased demand in the civil aviation industry in Brazil, putting pressure on the country’s airport infrastructure, which by itself justifies industry-related efficiency studies. Although the airport efficiency analysis is widely discussed in the literature, studies aiming to compare public and private Brazilian international airports are still scarce. The main objective of this study is to comparatively analyze the efficiency of public and private Brazilian international airports. To do so, efficiency was studied under two mathematical approaches: the two-stage DEA model and the Malmquist Index. Subsequent statistical analyses show a significant difference in efficiency between government-managed airports and those under concession to the private sector.

Efficiency analysis of airports administered by Infraero from 2003 to 2013

Applied Mathematical Sciences, 2017

The airline industry has earned over the years an important role in the process of globalization and economic development at national and global level. Since public resources are scarce and the industry demand is growing, the use of a tool that analyzes the efficiency of public airports gives visibility to structural problems and enables the mapping of strategies that seek to properly allocate the inputs front of the terminal needs. The objective of this study is to measure and evaluate the operational and financial efficiency of 63 public airports, administered by the Brazilian Airport Infrastructure Company, through the Data Envelopment Analysis Tool (DEA). In addition, to provide an overview of the sector over time, data 2003-2013 are studied by using descriptive statistics. The results showed in the operational analysis that only 12.7% of respondent terminals were efficient in 2010 and 11.1% in 2013. In the financial analysis were effective 9.5% of airports in 2010 and 14.3% in 2013. The results also revealed the need for attention to the sector in seeking to resolve bottlenecks and improve efficiency through modernization, adequate investment in infrastructure and balance between income and expenditure.

The relationship between airport performance and privatisation policy: A nonparametric metafrontier approach

Journal of Transport Geography, 2017

The assessment of economic and technical efficiency is a useful tool for selecting the most appropriate technology for airport operations. However, traditional models require that the units being assessed operate with the same technology. To overcome this limitation, one can use a non-concave metafrontier approach that is based on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to calculate the techno-economic efficiency and Technological Gap Ratios (TGRs) with non-homogeneous technologies for airports across countries and with different ownerships. The previous studies mainly applied DEA to measure the operational efficiency of airports. Our results indicate that privately owned airports have better technical efficiency than public ones. In addition, our empirical analysis shows that public airports in the Asia-Pacific area have the lowest techno-economic efficiency.

Measuring the efficiency of Greek regional airports prior to privatization using Data Envelopment Analysis

Measuring the efficiency of Greek regional airports prior to privatization using Data Envelopment Analysis, 2019

Air transport plays a fundamental role for local and global economic development. Greek airports in particular constitute an important infrastructure asset for regional development and the promotion of the domestic touristic product. However, many regional airports suffer from economic difficulties due to the lack of high volume of traffic, while others provide poor quality services during the commercially critical summer months. In this paper, we employ Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) based on a data set obtained by the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority, in order to benchmark the technical efficiency of the 14 Greek regional airports during 2016, just before their privatization. An output-oriented DEA model is used to assess separately the efficiency of the main infrastructural elements of the airports (i.e., terminal, airside area) on an annual and seasonal basis. The input of the terminal model includes the terminal area, as well as the number of baggage collection belts, gates, and check-in points, while the output deals with the total number of passengers. As far as the airside model is concerned, this uses as input the number and length of runways, the apron size and aircraft parking capacity, with the output being the total number of aircraft movements. The key factors influencing efficiency are investigated in order to suggest necessary improvements or upgrades and compare them with existing investment plans in the currently privatized airports. The results show that a significant lack of efficiency at regional airports can be mainly attributed to the relatively low ability to manage their resources, so as to increase output transport volumes. Finally, most airports are characterized by high scale efficiency and increasing returns to scale (IRS). The latter may provide incentives for investments towards airport capacity on expansion or upgrade projects and a more efficient management of scarce airport resources.

The impact of airport and seaport privatization on efficiency and performance: A review of the international evidence and implications for developing countries

2012

This article provides a synthesis of the international evidence with respect to the impact of privatization on the efficiency and performance of airports and seaports. The theoretical frameworks, particularly the arguments for potential efficiency gains from privatization are reviewed first, followed by a discussion and evaluation of the empirical results and conclusions from selected studies of airport and seaport privatization. Then, policy implications of the theoretical frameworks and the international evidence are discussed with special reference to privatization of the transport infrastructure in developing countries. Future research directions are also suggested.

Assessment of Productive Efficiency of Airports

2006

The move towards commercialization and privatization has pressured airports to become more productive and competitive. The need to devise an overall (total) productivity measure is increasingly important in airport business. The dissertation made three major research contributions. First, it assessed the productivity of airports operating in multiple airport systems (MASs). Second, it developed a more complete total factor productivity measure by considering joint production of desirable and undesirable outputs. Third, it developed models for explaining variations in productive efficiency. These are accomplished in two case studies. In case study 1, the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is used to assess relative total productivity of 72 airports operating in 25 MASs during 2000-2002. The results indicate that highly utilized airports such as O'Hare International, Los Angeles International, Heathrow/London and LaGuardia are classified as efficient. The Censored Tobit regression model suggests that runway utilization market dominance, proportion of international passengers and ownership can be used to explain variations in productive efficiency.

Measuring the economic efficiency of airports: A Simar–Wilson methodology analysis

Transportation Research Part E-logistics and Transportation Review, 2008

In this paper, the innovative two-stage procedure of Simar and Wilson [Simar, L., Wilson, P.W., 2007. Estimation and inference in two stage, semi-parametric models of productive efficiency. Journal of Econometrics 136, 31-64] is used to estimate the efficiency determinants of Italian airports. In the first stage, the airports' relative technical efficiency is estimated with data envelopment analysis (DEA) to establish the airports that perform most efficiently. These airports could serve as peers to help improve performance of the least efficient airports. The paper ranks these airports according to their total productivity for the period 2001-2003. In the second stage, the Simar and Wilson procedure is used to bootstrap the DEA scores with a truncated regression. Economic implications arising from the study are also considered. Published by Elsevier Ltd.