Customer satisfaction and airport efficiency in Brazil: a hybrid NDEA-AHP approach

PurposeThis paper aims to measure and unveil the relationship between customer satisfaction and efficiency levels in the most relevant Brazilian airports.Design/methodology/approachThe authors utilize a two-stage network DEA (data envelopment analysis) and AHP (analytic hierarchy process) model as the cornerstones of the study. The first stage of the network productive structure focuses on examining the infrastructure efficiency of the selected airports, while the second stage assesses their business efficiency.FindingsAlthough the results indicate that infrastructure and business efficiency levels are heterogeneous and widely dispersed across airports, controlling the regression results with different contextual variables suggests that the impact of efficiency levels on customer satisfaction is mediated by a set of socio-economic and demographic (endogenous) and regulatory (exogenous) variables. Furthermore, encouraging investment in airports is necessary to achieve higher infrastructural efficiency and scale efficiency, thereby improving customer satisfaction.Originality/valueThere is a scarcity of studies examining the relationships among customer satisfaction, privatization and airport efficiency, particularly in developing countries like Brazil.