A Stepwise Efficiency Improvement DEA Model for Airport Management with a Fixed Runway Capacity

Airports face a mutual competition. Consequently, they will be forced to improve the efficiency. Actual airport policies may comprise both short-term (flexible) adjustments and long-term (rigid) adjustments. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is a standard tool to assess the relative efficiency. Two interesting approaches, namely Distance Friction Minimization (DFM) model and Context-Dependent (CD) model, are noteworthy here. DFM model serves to improve the performance of business activities by identifying the most appropriate movement towards the efficiency frontier surface. Likewise, CD model seeks to reach efficient frontiers in a series of steps. Stepwise DFM model is integrated of DFM and CD model. An extension of Stepwise DFM model is next achieved by including a fixed (rigid) input factor. In our study, the above-mentioned Stepwise Fixed Factor projection model is illustrated on the basis of a comparative study regarding an efficiency assessment of airports in Japan.