Can we make money in the aviation industry? Profitability in the airline vs airport business

摘要

There is a perception within the air transport industry that airports are able to achievesubstantially higher profit levels than airlines. This can cause considerable friction in theairline-airport relationship. However there is only limited evidence in the literature tosupport these claims. Hence the overall aim of this paper is to explore this issue in depthand to compare the financial performance of European airlines and airports byundertaking both a cross-sectional assessment of the two sectors to analyse theircomparative performance during the same time period and also by undertaking alongitudinal assessment to determine the comparative variability of the performance ofthe two sectors through time. A sample of 20 European airports and airlines is used forthis analysis. Data for a long term time trend is used to take account of the cyclical natureof the industry. A number of financial and economic ratios relating to profitability,revenue generation, cost efficiency, debt/asset management and capital productivity areused. Whilst work is still very much in progress, initial results suggest that althoughairlines and airports are different as indicated by a range of financial criteria, they are notsignificantly different in terms of profitability according to a number of indicators.