The airport choice of exporters for fruit from Brazil

Decisions related to transportation should be optimized using criteria and indicators. Although the literature shows relevant criteria and indicators in competitiveness between airports, this study intends to contribute to the airport choice theory presenting perceptible indicators to air cargo service users. In this sense, this study aims to analyze the airport choice factors for the export of perishables from Brazil. Based on criteria found within the literature, a sensitivity analysis was performed under simulation for airport choice. Specifically, using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method, indicators related to time and cost criteria were compared based on interviews performed with Brazilian mango exporters. It was simulated the choice between of Brazil's main airports used for fruit export in recent years on the basis of the selection criterion pointed out by these exporters. The results show that the prioritization or choice based on time, commonly used as a reference, can result in loss of road freight, increasing costs for access to the airport by 23%. Hence, future studies can be conducted with the purpose of verifying the relation between cost and time in the decisions for choosing specific cargo airports for exporting nonperishable products.