Airport route development strategy planning and performance measurement with a dynamic performance management framework

by Jie Feng, Cheng-Lung Wu, Jinfu Zhu

Route development programs have become popular with airports worldwide to enhance air connectivity. Enhanced air connectivity of an airport has been found to have a positive and significant impact on the competitiveness and attractiveness of the airport and the regional economy in which the airport is located. However, the drivers behind route development programs and their performance are not always clear; this has been less explored in the literature. In this paper, a dynamic performance management approach is taken to build a modeling framework in which key drivers affecting route development performance and strategic resources affecting key drivers are identified. Route-level planning is used in an empirical study to demonstrate the dynamic mechanism of airport route development initiatives and performance measurements. The proposed framework can not only provide performance monitoring, but also suggest suitable indicators to evaluate the performance for policymakers in future airport route development.