Airport capacity vs. demand: Mismatch or mismanagement?

Since well-publicized congestion and delay problems encountered by European and US airports entered the political arena, there is an unprecedented pressure experienced by policy makers upon investigating and adopting strategies for managing demand and allocating scarce airport capacity. During the last few years, there is an ongoing policy debate within the European Community to undertake further work for a drastically revised regulatory framework aiming to deal with the scarcity of airport capacity through the efficient allocation of airport slots. One of the primary policy concerns lies on the compatibility of alternative slot allocation strategies in different airport settings. The objective of this paper is threefold: (i) to develop and apply a methodological framework for the multi-criteria evaluation and selection of the most compatible slot allocation strategy with respect to policy criteria and priorities in various airport settings, (ii) to examine the applicability of policy compatibility results in various airport settings and their potential acceptability from different industry stakeholders, and (iii) to provide policy recommendations for European airport policy making and planning.