engleski

Analysis of European airports’ strategy during the global economic crisis

An airport is a fundamental element of the air transport system. Airport infrastructure and operational characteristics, allows versatility to other transportation modes. Looking back, a significant expansion of airport infrastructure began in the early 1960s, with the use of an aircraft jet engine for commercial purposes. From the 1970s to the 1990s a significant proportion of the financial resources for building and expansion of airports was invested by states. In the Commonwealth countries, especially in the UK, Australia and Canada those investments were mainly obtained from public funds. Throughout the 100 years of commercial aviation, most of the airports were state-owned and operated as a public company run by the civil servants. State bodies and agencies were policy makers and at the same time they were responsible for airport operability, efficiency, financing and marketing, with the objective to increase traffic and ultimately increase revenue. While many airports were privatized, those remaining in state ownership are still dependent on the state money and the state investment strategy. Any unforeseen event that as a result causes economic crises has a strong negative impact on sustainable development. The last global economic crises began at the end of the year 2007 in the United States, its expansion to Europe and other parts of the world was significantly felt at the end of the year 2008, and in the year 2009 the entire economies of the European countries started with the negative GDP trend. The global economic crisis has significantly affected all sectors of the economy, but it was mostly reflected on one of the most vulnerable sectors, and that is the tourism sector, which goes hand in hand with air transportation. The past trends show that both, leisure and corporate travellers are amongst the main contributors to the strong development of airport capacity worldwide, maintaining over one million jobs in both developed and developing countries. The world economy has become dependent on air transport industry. The consequences of the economic crisis felt in the air transport industry, primarily airports, and how the airports have reacted by changing their strategy with the aim of saving their sustainable development, will be presented in this research paper.

Airport strategy; global economic crisis; aviation trends; aviation economy

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