Moving from good to great: Using smart benchmarking to improve airport performance

Abstract

Airports worldwide are increasingly struggling to earn a return on investment in an industry where it is tough to find levers to create sustainable value. Attempts to benchmark the industry so far have not provided a workable solution due to industry complexity and lack of comparability. In this paper, the authors describe a method that has demonstrated its impact in the field. Part of the success of this approach lies in the emphasis placed on adjusting airports by statistically meaningful factors, before comparing them with optimal performance outcomes. Another important insight is that benchmarking different parts of the airport business requires very different methodologies. These are illustrated, first, by describing the overarching process and, secondly, by showing two methodologies for different airport value drivers, one for airport regulation and the other for commercial revenues.