Quality assessment of airport performance from the passengers' perspective

Passenger satisfaction has become a key factor for the operation of an airport. In recent years, a wide range of studies have analysed airport quality from many viewpoints but predominantly based on explicit and visible aspects of airport performance. Our paper suggests that passengers' assessments may also include implicit evaluation of features that are not directly observable regarding an airport's management and characteristics. We merge data from 111 international airports worldwide, including information on perceptions of quality by passengers, management and regulatory schemes and airport features. Our estimations show that private participation at airports leads to a higher perception of quality. In addition, we may infer a preferred institutional model, in which legislative aspects related to the industry are strongly regulated by the government but each airport may freely decide how to perform in the market. Our results are positioned in favour of a more market-oriented approach to airport management: the airport quality assessment improves when this is subject to market forces, such as competition in fares or the inclusion of private participation.