Dynamic formation mechanism of airport competitiveness: The case of China

With the rapid development of Chinese economy, the demand of air transportation has increased enormously and airports are facing intensive competition, so the issue of how to enhance airport competitiveness has attracted serious concern of the public. The formation mechanism of airport competitiveness is very complex and the research is insufficient on this topic. In this paper, index system of airport competitiveness is built from four aspects: Regional Development, Production Factors, Demand Conditions and Support Industry. Dynamic formation mechanism of airport competitiveness is studied through Structure Equation Model as well as System Dynamic with the historical data of 25 Chinese airports from 2006 to 2010. Then the influencing mechanism of some important influencing factors is analyzed with the help of Vensim software, which verifies the rationality of the model. The results show that airport investment and city R&D inputs are the two most important influencing factors of airport competitiveness, which could provide guidance for decision makers on airport competitiveness cultivation.

► Structure Equation Model and System Dynamics model are used to study dynamic formation mechanism.
► Vensim software is used to get important influencing factors.
► Airport investment and city R&D inputs are the two most important influencing factors of airport competitiveness.