New Study Examined 195 Airports And 26 Airport Groups

Atlanta International Airport (ATL) is the most efficient airport in the world, according to a comprehensive ranking of global airports, conducted by a team of international aviation academics at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business.

The ATRS Global Airport Benchmarking Report compares the operational and management efficiency, as well as cost competitiveness of 195 airports and 26 airport groups in North America, Europe, Asia and Oceania.

Other top-rated airports in North America were Minneapolis-St. Paul International and Charlotte Douglas International. Elsewhere around the world  Copenhagen, Seoul Gimpo and Sydney led their respective continents in overall efficiency in the over 15 million passengers annually group while Vancouver International Airport was Canada’s top performer.

In the fewer than 15 million annual passengers category, the top US performers were:

1. Oklahoma City World Airport (USA)
2. Richmond International Airport (USA)
3. Raleigh-Durham International Airport (USA)

The European top performers in the smaller category were:

1. Geneve International Airport (Switzerland)
2. Basel Airport (Switzerland)
3. Nice Airport (France)

“Our report finds that the highly efficient airports are more likely to get a large share of total revenues from concession and other retail activities, parking, office rentals, and real estate development,” says UBC Sauder School of Business Prof. Tae Oum, who led the study. “We can also see that airports that outsource terminal services, ground handling and other services also achieve high efficiency.”

Oum says the benchmarking report shows that more efficient airports offer lower aircraft landing fees and passenger terminal charges, leaving more money in travelers’ pockets.

Atlanta generated 63 per cent of its total revenue from non-aviation activities, compared to the average of North American airports, which derived about 50 per cent of their income from the alternative sources. This marks the tenth year Atlanta has placed first in the rankings.

The Air Transport Research Society, headquartered at UBC’s Sauder School of Business, was established in 1995 to advance research on global issues on air transportation, and to conn between international aviation academics.

ATRS Global Airport Benchmarking Report, which first launched in 2000, is the most comprehensive independent evaluation of global airport performance.

FMI: www.ubc.ca