A hybrid AHP/DEA-AR model for measuring and comparing the efficiency of airports

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to employ an efficiency analysis and compare the efficiency scores of publicly or privately operated airports in Turkey. Design/methodology/approach This study uses analytic hierarchy process, which is one of the widely known multi-criteria decision-making methods to calculate the relative weights of input and outputs. This study also uses data envelopment analysis and assurance region (AR) method to calculate the efficiency scores of airports at the empirical analysis stage. Findings The empirical results reveal that DEA-BCC and DEA-CCR methods produced almost the same efficiency scores, and 14 airports were found as efficient. Also, AR method was employed and under this method, it was only two airports operated by the private sector that were found as efficient. None of the publicly operated airports was found as efficient. Practical implications The main practical implication of this study is that publicly operated airports must improve their efficiency levels in Turkey. This situation indicates that the government policy for the aviation sector must be changed. It is not a coincidence that all publicly operated airports are inefficient. To cope with this situation, it may be a useful policy that establishes a regional airport system or applies the privatization process to all airports. Originality/value The most significant contribution of this study to literature is that the AR method, which was never used before in a single country’s airport performance evaluation study, was applied for the first time. Also, this technique was applied first time to Turkish airports for measuring their efficiency levels.