Business models for airports in a competitive environment. One sky, different stories

Airport reforms have promoted the principle of self-sufficiency which has paved the way for the commercialization of airports. The research has investigated the contemporary business practices in airport management in order to devise a business model for an airport operating in a competitive environment. A business model consists of interlocking elements that when taken together create and deliver value and with which practitioners and academics depict and analyze “the way the firm operates.” The first contribution of this paper is to deliver a matrix of reference reflecting the core dimensions of airport operations which organizes the broad array of business practices into an inclusive structure. The second objective of this paper is to discover if the industry operates with a standard business model or if different sets of practices can be observed in various airports. The business structure of three airports respectively located in Asia, North America and the Middle East has been examined to test the idea of multiple airport business models.