When the shoe doesn't quite fit: Regulating large commercial airports with expanding roles (original) (raw)
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Airports have traditionally been considered as public utility providers, with little potential to develop significant market opportunities. Liberalisation of the air transport market around the globe has introduced new dynamics into the airport industry. The emergence of competition and the transition in ownership (towards privatisation or commercialisation) demand a different perspective in airport management. This paper aims at explaining the complexity of the airport business, in particular in what concerns the role of the airport as a firm that operates in a network of stakeholders, to produce a set of service packages targeted at several types of customers.
The DFW MSA is the nation fourth greatest urban area, with an estimated population of about 6.5 million people. The DFW MSA is served by two commercial airports: the DFW International and the Dallas Love Field. Other than the DFW MSA those airports serve the people living in the counties surrounding the limits of the MSA. In the northern side no commercial airports are found up to Oklahoma City. The Grayson County Regional Airport (GYI) is currently undergoing major improvements for his runways and his facilities. This paper looks at the possibility of expanding GYI Airport to meet the air travel demand of travelers from the expanding DFW region and other surrounding counties, mainly in the Southern Oklahoma. For this people, GYI airport should be the closest airport, way closer than the DFW area airports or OKC. The analysis of the population data, the relative median income and the business and manufacturing activities in the Primary Airport Service Region, leads to an estimate of the passenger activity if commercial operations were in effect today and in the next 20 years. The path to the move from a general aviation airport to a commercial airport that we recommend is a three step plan: short term, medium term and long term, from cargo activity, to non scheduled then scheduled operations and two different steps in airport certification. The method applied to this study at this particular airport could be used to analyze similar cases that are very common in the US.