ABSTRACT
Until recently, however, this kind of approach hasn’t been perceived as a top priority by airport managers. In fact, in the past, the airport business looked to be quite simple to manage. Like in many other static market environments, success was defined by only a few basic indicators. In the case of airports, the most important figure was traffic increase, either on the passenger or on the cargo side, to be matched with IATA average industry forecasts.1 In the short term, achieving this goal meant more revenues, in the form of increased passenger taxes as well as landing and handling fees from the core aviation-related business. In a longer-view perspective a wider level of activity would create a chance for the airport infrastructure to be upgraded, gain higher political visibility for airport managers and create stronger consensus among local stakeholders, due to the creation of new job opportunities for local communities.
