Evaluating the efficiency performance of airports using an integrated AHP/DEA-AR technique

Airport efficiency is an area of increasing interest to academics, policy makers and practitioners. This has resulted in a body of literature applying various econometric techniques to compare efficiency between different samples of airports. This paper uses the multi-criteria decision making method Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to incorporate the weightings of input and output variables into Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Assurance Region DEA (DEA-AR) models, with 24 major international airports in the empirical analysis. The paper concludes the discriminatory power in the proposed AHP/DEA-AR model is greater than in the basic DEA model when measuring the efficiency of airports. By applying this approach, policy makers and practitioners can effectively compare operational efficiency between airports, and therefore generate more informed decisions.