An Analysis of Airport Authority Operating Costs

This paper presents a comparative analysis of the operating costs incurred by the airport authority at a sample of U. S. large and medium hub airports. Sources of data on such costs are described and some difficulties in using these data for economic analysis arising from current airport accounting practices are discussed. The analysis addresses the effect on operating costs of such local circumstances as airport configuration, climate and recent improvement programs. The relation between operating costs and traffic is analyzed to investigate the nature and extent of economies of scale.