Airports’ public infrastructure and sources of inefficiency

Purpose The Spanish airport system contains several regional airports within an amenity distance and alternative travel modes. Profitable cross-subsidise small airports, which are not required for development or connectivity. Airports government-owned centralised-managed by Air Navigation (AENA, its acronym). This study aims to analyse the probability of under-used public infrastructure AENA’s managerial ability as per financial sustainability network in long term. Design/methodology/approach national regulatory framework determines airports’ environment. Six revealed unobserved heterogeneity, avoiding model misspecification. is defined through proxies singularities framework: investments geographical specifications. stochastic frontier analysis follows two time-varying specifications, accounting environmental factors, ensure robustness results differ from inefficiency caused AENA external factors. Findings Airports’ capacity traffic correlated; become a burden unless they specialise differentiate. Proxies defining context relevant. Because do compete airlines passengers, there too many with little traffic, resulting disused that falls far short improving connectivity development. Originality/value contributes paying attention characteristics framework, such management strongly centralised AENA, charges decided owner, lack competition independent entity. Another original contribution considers reliable capital measures (airports’ infrastructure).