Table 1

Cargo airport competitiveness factors: Criteria and literature summary

Main criteriaSub-criteriaOperational definitionLiterature
Transport Capacity (C1)
  • No. of airlines operating at an airport

An airport with a large number of airlines operating indicates that it has enough passengers and cargo to become a hub.Park (2003), Chao and Yu (2013), Mayer (2016)
  • No. of flights

The more frequent flights for both passengers and cargo indicates superior cargo transport capacity.Sarkis (2000), Park (2003), Chao and Yu (2013), Wong et al. (2016), Shojaei et al. (2018), Chakraborty et al. (2020), Ersoy (2021) 
  • Global air network (destinations)

A large number of destination cities indicates a wide flight network and better cargo transport accessibilityPark (2003), Zhang (2003), Chao and Yu (2013), Wong et al. (2016) 
Airport operations and facilities' capacity (C2)
  • No. of terminals (including cargo terminals)

  • Airport cargo capacity

  • No. of aprons and aircraft stands

Competitive airports with adequate facilities and infrastructure are able to handle large amounts of cargo traffic.Basso and Zhang (2010), Suryani et al. (2012), Adenigbo (2016) 
Economic growth (C3)
  • Cargo volumes

International trade, high-volume trade and GDP affect cargo volumes.Sarkis (2000), Chao and Yu (2013), Wong et al. (2016), Chakraborty et al. (2020), Ersoy (2021) 
  • Cargo growth rate

Cargo volumes indicate an airport's current cargo-wise performance, while growth rate indicates its growth potential.Chao and Yu (2013) 
  • GDP

Moreover, a higher national income can increase demand for air-transported high-value products.Park (2003), Suryani et al. (2012), Chao and Yu (2013) 
Financial performance (C4)
  • Annual revenue

Airports that are financially efficient are airports that use their assets to achieve self-sufficiency, that is, to increase revenues to levels sufficient to finance their current and future operations and activities.Sarkis (2000), Wilbert et al. (2017), Shojaei et al. (2018), Chakraborty et al. (2020) 
Airport brand value (C5) Brand value is an important marketing tool that is defined as a brand's sale value. The greater an airport's brand value, the greater its shareholder value, and thus its competitiveness.Kupfer et al. (2016), Chung et al. (2017) 

Source(s): Authors' own work based on the literature review

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