COMPARATIVE PERFORMANCE OF INTERNATIONAL AIRPORTS

IN MALAYSIA: AN INITIAL INVESTIGATION

Azlin binti Abdul Rahim1, a, Zailani bin Mohd. Zaid2,b
1

Universiti Kuala Lumpur Malaysian Institute of Aviation Technology

Lot 2891, Jalan Jenderam Hulu, Jenderam Hulu, 43800 Dengkil, Selangor, Malaysia
a
azlin.abdulrahim@yahoo.com, b zmzaid@gmail.com

Abstract. Various attempts have been made to measure the efficiency of international airports around the
globe by previous researchers. Some of the popular approaches in measuring airport efficiencies are
using comparative performance measurement by employing Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). This
paper attempts to measure comparative performance of international airports in Malaysia, namely Kuala
Lumpur International Airport, Penang International Airport, Kucing International Airport, Kota Kinabalu
International Airport and Langkawi International Airport, by using DEA. Through this initial analysis, the
authors looked into some of the possible input and output variables for the airports under investigation,
employing output-oriented Data Envelopment Analysis (CCR-O DEA) as a tool to understand the
respective airport comparative efficiencies with the objective of looking for improvement opportunities in
the output level to bring the respective airports to the efficient frontier. This initial investigation reveals that
Kuala Lumpur International Airport and Langkawi International Airport are on the efficient frontier while
Kucing International Airport, Penang International Airport and Kota Kinabalu International Airport are
lagging behind with comparative efficiency score of 99.35%, 75.90% and 53.92% respectively. This initial
analysis suggests that there are rooms for improvement for those airports that are lagging behind to
increase their respective output levels to bring them to efficient frontier and this warrants further
investigation on the international airports in Malaysia.
Keywords: Efficiency, Productivity, Performance Measure, Data Envelopment Analysis, Aviation