The impact of delay affecting airport efficiency: Sustainability perspective

Abstract

Copyright © 2020 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Airport industry has experienced significant growth over the recent years. Nevertheless, few studies have analysed their operational efficiency together with airport delay condition. This paper aims to modify the original DEA-based Malmquist productivity index by integrating with delay factor as it is the critical irregularity frequently suffered in most of the major worldwide airports. The top 20 busiest passenger airports in Asia are the sample airports. The examination presents the result of the current situation that most of the airports perform well in term of operational efficiency. However, the results are significantly dropped when the delay is included, meaning if airports still have a high percentage of delay incurred, airports definitely face with several issues such as airline and passenger dissatisfaction or deficiency in airport performance. Without delay, airport can reduce CO2 emission, increase airport capacity, and improve customer satisfaction. The finding indicates that airports shall obviously eliminate or reduce percentage of delay in order to accomplish airport sustainability development for the future.