Performance Measurement in Airports

This article examines airport performance measurement systems under varying ownership patterns in Europe andthe United States, bringing together a rich picture of different practices. The need for airports to give greater emphasis to their operational context to evaluate their performance objectively is emphasized. Many performance measures currently in use are output variables, usually quantitative andbasedon what is easy to measure rather than what is important to measure. The dysfunctional effects of measurement systems are considered, including the problems of discrepancies in the definition of key variables and of attempts to achieve direct comparability between airports.