Some nations earn a major chunk of their GDP by travel and tourism industry. For international trade to be fruitful enough for a country to fuel its economic growth, the airports have to be equipped with the latest technological advancements as they are an important constituent of Air Transportation System, contributing not only to the macro environment of transportation but also increasing the life quality of regional economies and participate directly in wealth creation of the nation.
Besides this they have the onus of making the guests coming from across the boundaries feel at ease and give an impression of the global standard. This would require pumping of huge resources. Therefore the importance of evaluation of whether the resources are being used in a prudent and meticulous manner can neither be neglected nor dwarfed.
Various KPIs can be devised for the aim of judging the performance of Airports. The dimensions along which these can be formulated include Financial, Passenger Related Operations, Flight Related Operations and Social Considerations. Aircraft Landing and Parking Fee and Operating Expenses can be incorporated in Financial view. Passenger Related Operations can be made up of no. of Security Checks, Baggage Delivery and check-in and immigration time. Flight Related Operations can be composed of no. of runaways and weather delays. The Social Consideration view can be had from Noise Level, Workplace accident compensation and Emergency Measures. This four dimensional view can then be employed in an integrated manner to deduce some ways to simplify and improve things.
Environment in which the airports operate is quite a complicated one and with the increase in the no. players entering this area the competition is only getting further aggravated. Also intensifying the challenges is the fact that the performance indicators available for airports are very large in no. and lack uniformity with which they are used. Adding to the list is the absence of standardization in the metrics in this industry to benchmark the operations and finances at airports. Also adding to the woes are the terrorism threats and hikes in fuel prices.
KPIs do the work of continuous improvement in the airport industry to help them better meet the expectations of customers and stakeholders. Further use can be made of KPIs in bringing about some constructive changes. With Privatization and Commercialization encroaching the Airport Industry, betterment of economic performance of Airports is the Hobson's choice and this is where the KPIs come to one's rescue. These help the management take a drive into the assessment process of the operations of the place to settle for implementation of some agreed on measures to make it more suitable and according to the needs of customers .
Managing Airports can at times, be similar to managing a Town as the no. of employees can be up to 50,000 as is the case of Hong Kong International Airport and Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. This calls for a fool proof way out and implementation of KPIs in Airport Industry is an attempt in this direction. KPIs, the Financial and Non-Financial metrics help achieve the task of managing the Airports in a more effective and efficient manner.