Final Project of

Business Research Method

Topic:

Proposal Writing
Course:

BS Aviation Management
Course instructor:

Sir Nadeem Iqbal

Submitted by:

Arslan Aslam

BAM -9234

5th Semester

Proposal

Factors affecting on Effective Airport Management

A Study in Context of Pakistan

Prepared by Aslam, A. 5th semester, BS (Hons.) in Aviation Management, Aviation Department, College of Business and Management Sciences, Superior University Lahore.

ABSTRACT
This study aims to find out the The Factors affecting on Effective Airport Management in the context of Pakistan. The study will be quantitative in nature (Positivism paradigm). After reading the literature at global scale, we chose some factors about airport management as independent variables like airport planning and development, airport congestion, safety and security issues, managing operational costs and managing emergency , in our research and the dependent variable; Effective Airport Management affected by independent variables. Hypotheses will also be developed to test the relationships between factors or challenges to airport management in Pakistan. Data for the research will be collected from different cities of Pakistan; Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore, Multan, Sialkot, Quetta and Peshawar through questionnaires filled by aviation professionals like airport managers, directors, and chiefs of operations. Collected data will be analyzed through software SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) and findings will be experiment based.

Introduction
In the early days of aviation, there were less numbers of airports. After the end of World War 1 in November 1918, Civil Aviation in the United States was primarily unregulated and was primarily made up of transient pilots operating inexpensive military surplus aircraft from cityto- city, often landing in farm fields on the outskirts of a town as airports were scarce at that time. There was no proper infrastructure at that time to manage airport. With the passage of the Air Commerce Act of 1926, the transient nature of civil aviation was curtailed. The last few years has seen an exponential growth in the aviation industry. Aviation infrastructure has expanded to include hundreds of airports and airlines around the world. New airports have mushroomed in places which were hardly known to the world, existing airports have upgraded their facilities, new terminals have come up and multiple airlines have been setup. The volume of people who choose aviation as a transport has considerably grown. The aviation industry is in full bloom and so are the problems associated with it. Low cost carriers attracted more people to travel by air. There is need to conduct a research to find out that what factors affect on effective airport management. The following are the identifiable key issues and new thrust areas in Airport Business Management; Planning and Development of Airport Capacity, Funds for

Airport Growth and Expansion, Opportunities to cut costs, Managing Airport Congestion, Impact of Low Cost Carriers (LCC`s) to the aviation industry and Impact of Environmental policies and regulations. (Khan M. K. air transport management)

Many U.S. airports are operating above capacity (airport congestion), which causes air-traffic delays. One good solution is to build more runways, except that it takes approximately 10 to 15 years to build new runways because of the laws and regulations that govern their construction. (airport planning and development) Denver's airport cost about $5-billion to build and operating costs are $160-million per year. Airside, terminal and surface links to airports need expanding and upgrading across the industry. Airlines pressure on airports is to keep costs low, Additional PFC (passengers facility charges) revenues require that Congress include an increase in the current $4.50 ceiling when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) legislation is finally

passed while the Airport Improvement Program continues to be vital for many airports (Stephen D. Ph.D. CEO of the Eno Transportation Foundation, Washington, D.C). Long-term growth in air travel and the paucity of new airports and airside infrastructure coming on-line, congestion management will be coming to many airports over the next two decades. For New York and elsewhere, airports, airlines and the FAA must acknowledge each other s legitimate roles in congestion management and sit down to work out a collaborative process (Stephen D. Ph.D. CEO of the Eno Transportation Foundation, Washington, D.C). Costs decided by airport management effectively strangled a once thriving airport. The decline has been evident in fuel sales alone, decreasing at an alarming rate over the past several years. (Gilligan K. the rise and fall of the regional airport) The costs imposed by airport management make basing an aircraft at Bankstown airport unviable. This is not just a loss of aircraft to flying schools; it is a loss of revenue for the refuellers, the maintainers and even Air services. It impacts on local jobs and apprenticeship opportunities as well as businesses in and around the airport (Rodgers, C. President AOPA). With increased costs at airports, such as Bankstown, Caloundra, Campden and Jandakot airport, is the ever looming threat of closure. Most who operate in metropolitan areas think moving to outlying areas will ruin their business (airport expansion). (Rodgers, C. President AOPA). Improper handling of human resources is another problematic area in airport management. Lack of innovation, motivation and appreciation for quality and talent makes it difficult to attract good talent or to retain the skilled employees. Lack of government resources to cope with fast changing technologies and management skill and other economic potentiality of airport services have made it clear that airports should operate as commercial undertakings. (Doganis, R. The Airport Business, London, 1992.)

No study has been conducted yet in the context of Pakistan about factors affecting on airport management. This research will help airport managers and operational officers to understand challenges faced by airport management in aviation industry of Pakistan and how to overcome them. The intent of this survey based study to find out factors affecting effective airport management on airports located in the territory of Pakistan.

Purpose Statement
The purpose of this survey based quantitative research will identify factors affected / challenges faced by airport management on airports located in the territory of Pakistan. To examine the relationship between airport management and some factors like safety and security issues, airport congestion, managing cost of operations etc. and find out which factor and how much it affects on airport management will be included in this study. The intent of the research will be aware of people of Pakistan with importance of airport management.

Significance of the Research

This survey based quantitative research will be providing guidelines not only for operators performing their duties in the operational areas of an airport but also for management staff in the terminal building (offices). It will keep aware airport managers to handle challenging situations and keep ready management staff before incidents and accidents (Safety breakdown). People will be informed about the problems faced and their causes by airport management on international airports in Pakistan. A comparison with world famous airports will come in front of aviation professionals of aviation industry of Pakistan.

Literature Review
Since the attacks of September 11, 2001 airport and airline security includes terrorist attacks hijacking etc. have become extremely important in the US and round the world. There are four subjects who impact directly on our worldwide operations: (a) the planning and development of airport capacity, (b) the development of airport management capability, (c) funding of airport investments and (d) the impact of low cost carriers. (Fong K. December 2006).

Airport Congestion
With the rapid growth of traffic and the increasing complexity of the operation, the civil airports face increasing safety pressure (Cheng M. & Liang W. Research Institute of Civil

Aviation Safety, Civil Aviation University of China, Tianjin, China). Traffic handling services include provision of loading and unloading of baggage, delivery of baggage through conveyer belts at the lounge, processing of passengers and providing required services to the passengers.

Here also difference exists among airports in different countries. For example in many European countries these services are provided by airlines or special handling agents. In India, these services are provided by the airport authorities. It has been more than 5 years since the aviation community was shaken by the events of September 11. Meanwhile, worldwide passenger traffic continues to grow at 4% per annum. At this rate passenger traffic will hit 7 billion by 2020. Air freight is projected to grow at 5% per annum to reach 170 million tons by the same year. (World Traffic Results for September 2006). As passenger traffic increases, and considering the limited action that is undertaken to increase airport capacity, it is expected that congestion levels will worsen in the next few decades. For the next 10-15 years, it is expected that passenger traffic will increase by 5 per cent per annum, while only few airports are able to expand their capacity by building new runways and terminals. (Nibbering P.) Kelly (2001) demonstrates that airport and enroute delays cost the airlines in the United States five billion dollars every year. Daniel and Harback (2007) warn that estimates by the aviation industry show that delays will cost 154 billion dollars cumulatively over the next ten years, even with the FAA s current airport improvement plans. These examples clearly demonstrate the worrisome effects that airport congestion has, and possibly, will have on the US and on the global economy (Nibbering P.). Abeyratne (2000) argues that the preference for travel is one of the main contributing factors to airport congestion. This is also recognized by Barbot (2005) who states that flights would be more uniformly distributed over the day if passengers had no time preferences. As long as passengers all favor to travel at the same time, peak and off-peak periods will continue to exist. The easiest solution would be spreading flights over the entire day, but this is actually more complicated than it seems. In the current situation, the majority of passengers want to fly during peak hours, although passengers do not share the same value of time. This means that, during peak hours, aircraft are partly filled with passengers that have a low value of time. These passengers therefore indirectly add to congestion, but they are not willing to pay for it.

Airport Expansion
One changing aspect of airport management and development is the whole dimension presented by the arrival of low fare airlines. Although they do take away some traffic previously served by the big carriers, their net effect is to make air travel more affordable and raise substantially the volume of passengers served. In many of the regional European airports, these airlines today accounted for more than half of the passenger volume (Fong K. December 2006). Today, for an international airport terminal building in the 15 to 30 mppa range, the construction cost is between US$25 and US$30 million per mppa. Thus, a terminal building with a capacity of 25 mppa will be expected to cost between US$620 and US$750 million. Denver's airport cost about $5-billion to build and operating costs are $160-million per year.

Costs and Emergency Management

Due to high fuel prices, a slowing economy and airline service cutbacks, the always-difficult job of an airport director is even more challenging today than in the past. Based on airline schedules set for this fall, traffic will decline at many airports, back to the levels of 2007 or 2006. Whether the dip will be sustained or short-lived is extremely difficult to predict given the wild gyrations in the price of oil and the state of the U.S. economy. The costs imposed by airport management have a great impact. This is not just a loss of aircraft to flying schools; it is a loss of revenue for the refuellers, the maintainers and even Air services. It impacts on local jobs and apprenticeship opportunities as well as businesses in and around the airport (Rodgers C. President AOPA). Lack of dedicated software tools that support the paper based

procedures, incorrect application of procedures and incorrect storage of information are

causes of emergency management crisis. Improper handling of human resources is another problematic area in airport management. Lack of innovation, motivation and appreciation for quality and talent makes it difficult to attract good talent or to retain the skilled employees. Lack of government resources to cope with fast changing technologies and management skill and other economic potentiality of airport services have made it clear that airports should operate as commercial undertakings. (Doganis R. The Airport Business, London, 1992.) The major management issues to airport management as maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction during rapid growth,

developing infrastructure, reducing costs, increasing productivity, and ensuring competitive prices for his leading customers like airlines and tour operators. (Griffiths J. 1994).

Theoretical framework
Proposed Model
Independent variables Dependent variable

Safety and Security Issues

Airport Congestion

Effective
High Operational Costs

Airport Management

Airport Planning and Development Managing Emergency

Explanation:
The proposed model above, defines that safety and security issues, airport congestion, high operational costs, airport planning and development and emergency management are as independent variable having impact on effective airport management as dependent variable. Safety and security issues include maintaining safety by proper inspection of navigational

equipments like runway lighting system and other navigational aids (safety) and terrorist attacks, hijacking and other security threats (security). Airports are one of the busiest places due to increase number of travelers result in congestion in both traffic and passengers have an impact on airport management. It is affected by high operational costs due to increase in fuel price and a great challenge of expansion of airports and management of emergency like fire fighting and rescue service etc.

Objectives of the Study

 To determine the challenges/problems faced by airport management on international airports located in the territory of Pakistan.  To identify the opinions of airport managers, operational managers about how to manage operational costs and management of emergency.  To improve the infrastructure of airports of Pakistan.  To compare this research conducted in Pakistan from previous study about problems faced by airport management.  To make aviation professional and common people aware with facts and figures about airport management challenges.

Hypotheses
Hypotheses are predictive statements between independent and dependent variable as written below; 1.

H0 =

There is no relationship between safety and security issues and airport

management in Pakistan.

H1= There is a relationship between safety and security issues and airport management
in Pakistan.

2.

H0= There is no relationship between airport congestion and airport management in

Pakistan.

H1= There is
Pakistan.

a relationship between airport congestion and airport management in

3.

H0= There is no relationship between high operational costs and airport management in
Pakistan.

H1= There is a relationship between high operational costs and airport management in
Pakistan.

4.

H0= There is no relationship between airport planning and development and airport
management in Pakistan.

H1 =

There is a relationship between airport planning and development and airport

management in Pakistan.

5.

H0 =

There is no relationship between emergency management and airport

management in Pakistan.

H1= There is a relationship between emergency management and airport management

in Pakistan.

Methodology of the Study

Site and Sample
The research will be quantitative in nature based on Positivism paradigm. This research will be conducted in the context of Pakistan and data will also be collected from international airports located in different cities of Pakistan i.e. Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Sialkot, Multan, Peshawar and Quetta. The airport names are Benazir Bhutto International Airport, Allama Iqbal International airport, Jinnah International Airport, Sialkot International Airport, Multan

International Airport, Peshawar International Airport and Quetta International Airport respectively. Our population will be employees of Civil Aviation Authority of Pakistan on airports with strong aviation background that have been gained experience in the management of airport. The people from airlines on designations of operational officers will be included in the population. Data for the study will be collected from senior management staff like airport owners or airport managers (APMs), directors of operations, chief air traffic controllers and middle level staff like flight operation officers (FOOs), assistant airport managers, assistant of directors and air traffic control officers. The selected sample size will be 370. We will choose simple random, convenience sampling and snow ball sampling techniques to collect data.

Methods of Data Collection

Data will be collected from questionnaires including self administered, online questionnaires and postal questionnaires in which close ended questions will be asked to the respondents and structured interviews (face to face) will be conducted in which close ended questions will be asked. 370 Questionnaires will be filled by respondents and total 20 structured interviews will be conducted from airport managers (APMs), directors of operations and other flight operating officers (FOOs) from international airports of Pakistan.

Data Analysis Procedures:

Data collected from respondents will put into and analyzed through SPSS software 16.0 version to determine the effects of independent variables on dependent variable.

References
Doganis, R. (1992), the Airport Business, London.

Zhang, A. & Zhang, Y. (2006). Airport capacity and congestion when carriers have market power, Journal of Urban Economics, Vol. 60, No. 2, pp. 229-247.

Cheng, M. & Liang, W. Research Institute of Civil Aviation Safety, Civil Aviation University of China, Tianjin, China).

Stephen, D. Ph.D. CEO of the Eno Transportation Foundation, Washington, D.C Nayar, B. R. (1994), the State and International Aviation in India.

World Traffic Results for September 2006, published 1 November 2006.

Gooding R. E., (2006), Surviving the Low Cost Carrier Challenge: London City Airport s Business Model , Journal of Airport Management, September 2006, p. 6-7.

Questionnaire Topic: Factors affecting on Effective Airport Management

Strongly Agree=4 Agree=3 Neutral=2 Disagree=1 Strongly Disagree=0

Give your opinion about following questions by using above option scale. Airport Congestion
Q1: Increase traffic creates workload on only on operational personnel like ATCOs at Pakistani
airports. Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

Q2: Increase traffic issue can be handled without airport expansion (building and installations;
facilities) now-a-days in Pakistan. Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

Q3: Air traffic burden directly has a great impact on budget allocated to the airport due to
inadequate changes in it. Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

Q4: The increase in air traffic has no the great impact on the maintenance of operational and non
operational area of the airport. Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

Q5: Airport management is responsible for flights delays at airports located in Pakistan.
Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

Airport Planning and Development Q6: Changes in the facilities (both operational and non operational) of airport is not a challenge
for airport management in the context of Pakistan. Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

Q7: In Pakistan, low fare airlines have great contribution in changing the current facilities of
airport. Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

Q8: At Pakistani airports, development or expansion is needed to operations side but not for the
land side or terminal. Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

Safety and Security Issues Q9: Inappropriate application of safety management system at airports causes airport
managers to face issues raised. Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

Q10: External threats are not needed to be kept in view by airport management of Pakistani
airports. Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

Q11: Internal security threats (lack of or improper detectors and security personnel) are less
focused area to the airport management. Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

Q12: Security personnel are properly trained and motivated by giving adequate salaries by
airport management. Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

High Operational Costs Q13: The international rate of fuel and oil has a great impact on airport management.
Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

Q14: The operational budgets allocated to airports have very complex changes due to high fuel
and oil prices. Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

Managing Emergency
Q15: Lack of dedicated software,
Strongly Agree Agree
incorrect application of procedures and incorrect storage of

information are causes of emergency management crisis at airports in Pakistan.

Neutral

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

Airport Management
Q16: Airport management is making better day by day in Pakistan.
Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

Q17: There is no need of any change in the infrastructure of airport management.

Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

Thank you for your precious time