Expanding on Airport Factors: Including Cost Per Enplanement

I can't seem to get off the topic of airport factors and how building a context neutral stat for airports can help us better understand how an airline's operation is actually performing. However, I feel like I haven't gone far enough. Airline operations are just one overall KPI that is analyzed by airlines and the industry alike. To move another level into this analysis I will attempt to incorporate a financial measure.

Costs are a major consideration for airlines in the planning of which airports they add to their network and costs will be the basis for this research. Previously, I had used DOT data to find the true on time departure performance of airlines by stripping out the airport factor. This time I will use that same data along with airport financial data (dwuconsulting.com) to determine which airports are the "best" for and airline to fly in and out of based on two variables, costs and operational performance.

Specifically, I will be looking into the cost an airport charges the airlines for all enplanements. Enplanements are boarded passengers. There is data out there - coming from the DOT - that tells us how many enplanements each airport experienced in a given year. You can also filter the data by airline. For this initial pass, I will look only at each airport's total enplanements (2016 data).

I was able to generate a list of 294 airports in the US (including US territories) and their respective total enplanements for 2016. At the top of the list, ATL, which is no surprise. Fun fact, at the bottom of the list with only 2,151 enplanements lies ADK - located on Adak Island in the great state of Alaska.

The goal here to take the airport factors - generated and explained in the previous post - and layer in the cost per enplanements for each airport. This will give us a more holistic airport factor (operational and financial). Note, I could only find financial information for 2016 which means I could only use the operational data from 2016. After merging the CPE data with the enplanement data my n of airports dwindled to 129.

This is how I did it.

1. I took the original - operation only - airport factors for each airport and normalized them.
2. I then took the cost per enplanement for each airport and normalized them as well.
3. I then added the two together (labeling that column Airport Factor +)

That simple.

In reality, this shouldn't be that simple. I could spend a great deal of time on what weight to give to each variable (operation and finance), but this would depend on the airline and their strategy. Since I am not an airline my strategy was just to give the same weight to each; therefore, simple addition worked for me. What the model is doing is providing an airport factor for operations and one for the cost per enplanement for each airport and then summing. What does this mean for the airport rankings? Long story short, airports will get shuffled around. The airport on top is the one where the combined operation and CPE normalized airport factor is the greatest.

Quickly scan the table below. You will notice that airports are broken up in three buckets. These buckets divide the airports by number of enplanements. For this exercise, I thought about airports in terms of small, medium and large with the large airports (the ones with the most enplanements) labeled one. This was done so that we can better analyze these airports. For instance, should I really be comparing ATL to BLI? Those airports are no where near the same size which means you cannot accurately compare the cost per enplanement. Are there economies of scale at play for ATL? Does the cost of living adjustment for BLI help or hinder? These are factors that I am not ready - and frankly don't have the data - to attempt to incorporate at the moment. In happens - that in my example - the CPE for ATL and BLI are relatively close, but to be on the safe side I will stay with analyzing airports within the buckets.

The "objective" numbers below gives us three winners. BLI is the winner of the small airports. LIH tops the medium airports and SLC comes out ahead in the battle of the big airports.

In the next post I will start to "anecdotally" examine this list. I am not sure how much content I can pull out, but at first glance it would seem there are several little stories that could emerge.

(Note: the airports at the bottom of the list without a bucket are ones where I could not find CPE data.)

ORIGIN	Airport Factor	AF Normalized	CPE	CPE Normalized	AF+	Enplanements	Bucket
SLC	1.034	0.7831	3.69	0.1316	0.6515	10760199	1
CLT	0.979	0.6567	1.35	0.0481	0.6085	20048187	1
ATL	0.984	0.6680	2.38	0.0848	0.5831	44920567	1
HNL	1.086	0.9045	11.36	0.4050	0.4995	7155664	1
MSP	1.007	0.7214	6.32	0.2253	0.4961	16731230	1
MCI	1.003	0.7113	6.6	0.2353	0.4760	5357861	1
TPA	0.977	0.6509	5.02	0.1790	0.4719	8781062	1
PHX	0.981	0.6614	5.79	0.2064	0.4550	19877443	1
BNA	0.969	0.6324	5.08	0.1811	0.4513	6274977	1
MCO	0.949	0.5869	4.66	0.1661	0.4208	17560963	1
MSY	0.985	0.6697	7.16	0.2553	0.4145	5513838	1
RDU	0.975	0.6468	7.28	0.2595	0.3873	5269150	1
DAL	0.926	0.5327	4.26	0.1519	0.3808	7552031	1
AUS	0.988	0.6764	8.38	0.2988	0.3777	5959242	1
FLL	0.916	0.5114	3.94	0.1405	0.3710	11370295	1
SEA	1.010	0.7295	10.1	0.3601	0.3695	19519280	1
PDX	1.017	0.7456	10.68	0.3807	0.3649	8731105	1
DTW	0.997	0.6990	10.01	0.3569	0.3421	15215595	1
IND	0.995	0.6943	10.11	0.3604	0.3339	4179754	1
SNA	0.990	0.6825	9.96	0.3551	0.3274	5000610	1
HOU	0.940	0.5669	7.15	0.2549	0.3120	5879838	1
MDW	0.935	0.5534	7.61	0.2713	0.2821	10652420	1
SAN	0.982	0.6627	10.71	0.3818	0.2808	9958767	1
IAH	0.974	0.6449	10.62	0.3786	0.2663	14782257	1
SJC	0.968	0.6306	10.48	0.3736	0.2570	4989266	1
BWI	0.951	0.5924	9.51	0.3390	0.2534	11762088	1
DFW	0.937	0.5588	9.5	0.3387	0.2201	27388720	1
DEN	0.950	0.5903	10.8	0.3850	0.2053	27132524	1
OAK	0.936	0.5559	10.6	0.3779	0.1780	5742643	1
LAS	0.940	0.5655	11.05	0.3939	0.1716	20919943	1
STL	0.954	0.5986	11.99	0.4275	0.1711	6673219	1
DCA	0.975	0.6485	13.44	0.4791	0.1693	11283972	1
BOS	0.958	0.6089	13.45	0.4795	0.1294	14662143	1
PHL	0.971	0.6392	14.58	0.5198	0.1194	12749772	1
SMF	0.963	0.6206	15.45	0.5508	0.0698	4857097	1
ORD	0.907	0.4891	15.16	0.5405	-0.0513	31591147	1
LAX	0.901	0.4766	14.83	0.5287	-0.0521	28534374	1
IAD	0.987	0.6752	21	0.7487	-0.0735	7005941	1
SFO	0.914	0.5062	16.67	0.5943	-0.0881	19682786	1
LGA	0.910	0.4977	18.68	0.6660	-0.1683	13753623	1
MIA	0.911	0.5000	19.87	0.7084	-0.2084	10574402	1
JFK	0.917	0.5128	25.45	0.9073	-0.3945	13508526	1
EWR	0.892	0.4549	28.05	1.0000	-0.5451	13997429	1
LIH	1.092	0.9186	6.42	0.2289	0.6897	1405604	2
KOA	1.067	0.8618	5.2	0.1854	0.6764	1539225	2
OGG	1.063	0.8510	7.15	0.2549	0.5961	3165617	2
GEG	1.042	0.8035	5.93	0.2114	0.5921	1570226	2
BOI	1.016	0.7431	4.45	0.1586	0.5844	1631654	2
BUR	0.973	0.6416	2.68	0.0955	0.5461	2090392	2
ALB	1.013	0.7346	6	0.2139	0.5207	1388271	2
ANC	1.088	0.9102	11.15	0.3975	0.5127	2512459	2
OKC	1.015	0.7408	6.44	0.2296	0.5112	1792798	2
OMA	1.014	0.7370	6.84	0.2439	0.4931	2124983	2
DAY	1.006	0.7203	6.61	0.2357	0.4846	1019080	2
TUL	1.029	0.7735	8.16	0.2909	0.4826	1342144	2
CVG	1.003	0.7122	6.9	0.2460	0.4662	3153174	2
CMH	1.006	0.7200	7.21	0.2570	0.4629	3526880	2
SDF	0.986	0.6732	5.99	0.2135	0.4597	1630442	2
GSP	0.992	0.6867	6.49	0.2314	0.4553	990992	2
ELP	0.985	0.6712	6.53	0.2328	0.4384	1394835	2
MKE	1.006	0.7197	8.07	0.2877	0.4320	3284559	2
SAT	0.998	0.7000	7.9	0.2816	0.4184	3985491	2
GRR	1.015	0.7399	9.15	0.3262	0.4137	1334281	2
JAX	0.995	0.6947	7.89	0.2813	0.4134	2723535	2
DSM	1.004	0.7152	8.5	0.3030	0.4122	1215748	2
RSW	0.969	0.6340	6.41	0.2285	0.4055	4049422	2
BDL	1.008	0.7235	8.92	0.3180	0.4055	2942163	2
RIC	0.955	0.6003	5.53	0.1971	0.4032	1775413	2
CHS	0.972	0.6410	6.84	0.2439	0.3972	1811461	2
TUS	0.992	0.6860	8.45	0.3012	0.3848	1592517	2
RNO	0.969	0.6343	7.56	0.2695	0.3648	1749658	2
PBI	0.911	0.4983	3.9	0.1390	0.3592	3029227	2
ABQ	0.980	0.6590	8.47	0.3020	0.3570	2340685	2
ORF	0.979	0.6565	8.42	0.3002	0.3563	1600549	2
MHT	1.026	0.7656	12.09	0.4310	0.3346	994609	2
BUF	1.001	0.7084	10.63	0.3790	0.3294	2311896	2
ROC	0.988	0.6764	10.05	0.3583	0.3181	1177035	2
PIT	1.025	0.7635	12.86	0.4585	0.3050	3884254	2
MEM	1.001	0.7081	11.37	0.4053	0.3028	2014185	2
ONT	0.974	0.6439	10.13	0.3611	0.2827	2034434	2
BHM	1.001	0.7076	11.99	0.4275	0.2801	1303645	2
SAV	0.943	0.5738	8.41	0.2998	0.2740	1055972	2
PVD	1.010	0.7290	12.86	0.4585	0.2705	1784505	2
LGB	0.959	0.6110	10.53	0.3754	0.2356	1385872	2
SJU	0.966	0.6263	13.48	0.4806	0.1458	3848203	2
CLE	0.980	0.6584	19.7	0.7023	-0.0439	3995979	2
BLI	1.084	0.9000	2.2	0.0784	0.8216	415269	3
ITO	1.098	0.9336	4.86	0.1733	0.7603	640625	3
FNT	1.055	0.8325	2.1	0.0749	0.7576	398493	3
BZN	1.029	0.7718	2.76	0.0984	0.6734	553143	3
BIL	1.091	0.9158	6.96	0.2481	0.6676	422709	3
MAF	1.037	0.7905	3.5	0.1248	0.6658	471481	3
AMA	1.058	0.8399	5.52	0.1968	0.6431	334810	3
FSD	1.011	0.7311	2.86	0.1020	0.6291	510102	3
ILM	1.035	0.7872	4.69	0.1672	0.6200	413069	3
FAR	1.015	0.7397	3.96	0.1412	0.5985	399961	3
CAK	1.000	0.7055	3.35	0.1194	0.5861	684647	3
ECP	1.041	0.7994	6.4	0.2282	0.5713	434192	3
XNA	1.009	0.7263	6.54	0.2332	0.4932	673850	3
CID	1.011	0.7314	6.96	0.2481	0.4833	545444	3
ICT	1.024	0.7618	7.84	0.2795	0.4823	781279	3
LBB	1.030	0.7742	8.31	0.2963	0.4779	447875	3
MSN	1.028	0.7692	8.21	0.2927	0.4765	902116	3
FAI	1.061	0.8456	10.4	0.3708	0.4748	528337	3
PSP	0.975	0.6462	4.81	0.1715	0.4748	820615	3
PNS	1.026	0.7657	8.82	0.3144	0.4513	792889	3
COS	0.990	0.6821	6.48	0.2310	0.4511	653178	3
EYW	1.050	0.8219	10.84	0.3865	0.4355	380379	3
MLI	1.032	0.7798	9.84	0.3508	0.4290	363371	3
FAT	0.993	0.6888	8.06	0.2873	0.4014	659809	3
TYS	0.991	0.6842	8.07	0.2877	0.3965	885250	3
LIT	1.028	0.7692	10.49	0.3740	0.3952	958537	3
ISP	1.001	0.7068	8.95	0.3191	0.3878	597330	3
JAN	1.025	0.7632	11.03	0.3932	0.3700	491234	3
ACY	0.916	0.5114	4.19	0.1494	0.3620	576843	3
CAE	0.989	0.6792	9.06	0.3230	0.3562	553279	3
EUG	0.961	0.6156	7.34	0.2617	0.3539	482980	3
PWM	0.959	0.6107	7.99	0.2848	0.3258	886218	3
LEX	0.986	0.6717	9.82	0.3501	0.3216	637403	3
GSO	0.974	0.6449	9.44	0.3365	0.3084	847452	3
BTV	0.932	0.5474	7.01	0.2499	0.2975	591988	3
MYR	0.937	0.5589	7.6	0.2709	0.2879	935743	3
SRQ	0.952	0.5940	10.64	0.3793	0.2147	559184	3
SYR	0.985	0.6711	13.49	0.4809	0.1902	978611	3
HSV	1.041	0.7998	17.48	0.6232	0.1767	526913	3
MDT	0.996	0.6955	14.97	0.5337	0.1618	581722	3
GUM	1.004	0.7149	16.3	0.5811	0.1338	156585	3
BTR	0.961	0.6154	14.14	0.5041	0.1113	364094	3
HPN	0.922	0.5242	19.24	0.6859	-0.1618	763480	3
STT	0.995	0.6947	0	0.0000	0.0000	727823
SGF	1.013	0.7361	9	0.0000	0.0000	461893
VPS	1.016	0.7429	9	0.0000	0.0000	439710
CHA	0.993	0.6899	9	0.0000	0.0000	422295
AVL	0.963	0.6193	9	0.0000	0.0000	416881
MFR	0.962	0.6180	9	0.0000	0.0000	401371
MSO	1.052	0.8255	9	0.0000	0.0000	381022
PSC	1.035	0.7868	9	0.0000	0.0000	374293
FWA	1.006	0.7184	9	0.0000	0.0000	360214
MFE	1.030	0.7744	9	0.0000	0.0000	350022
TLH	1.030	0.7746	9	0.0000	0.0000	345019
DAB	1.018	0.7462	9	0.0000	0.0000	342386
JAC	0.969	0.6325	9	0.0000	0.0000	341958
JNU	1.070	0.8687	9	0.0000	0.0000	340535
SBN	0.986	0.6732	9	0.0000	0.0000	329575
SBA	0.950	0.5884	9	0.0000	0.0000	329496
CRP	1.034	0.7842	9	0.0000	0.0000	325692
ABE	0.995	0.6940	9	0.0000	0.0000	322945
PIA	1.004	0.7143	9	0.0000	0.0000	306359
RDM	0.973	0.6416	9	0.0000	0.0000	306016
ROA	0.974	0.6439	9	0.0000	0.0000	304600
GPT	1.031	0.7776	9	0.0000	0.0000	302985
CHO	0.963	0.6203	9	0.0000	0.0000	295388
GRB	1.036	0.7886	9	0.0000	0.0000	292514
MOB	1.002	0.7106	9	0.0000	0.0000	288206
TTN	0.968	0.6303	9	0.0000	0.0000	278169
BIS	1.033	0.7815	9	0.0000	0.0000	273919
RAP	1.026	0.7644	9	0.0000	0.0000	272520
ATW	1.037	0.7917	9	0.0000	0.0000	270584
SHV	0.997	0.6982	9	0.0000	0.0000	270360
AGS	0.993	0.6886	9	0.0000	0.0000	269822
HRL	1.022	0.7572	9	0.0000	0.0000	263629
BQN	0.880	0.4266	9	0.0000	0.0000	255744
ASE	0.882	0.4314	9	0.0000	0.0000	254288
FCA	1.074	0.8764	9	0.0000	0.0000	247802
BGR	0.962	0.6168	9	0.0000	0.0000	244579
AVP	1.027	0.7675	9	0.0000	0.0000	232505
FAY	0.989	0.6808	9	0.0000	0.0000	224141
TVC	0.963	0.6203	9	0.0000	0.0000	223142
MLB	1.027	0.7683	9	0.0000	0.0000	219615
GJT	1.098	0.9320	9	0.0000	0.0000	218279
CRW	0.944	0.5754	9	0.0000	0.0000	213408
LFT	1.007	0.7209	9	0.0000	0.0000	206532
GNV	0.984	0.6677	9	0.0000	0.0000	206199
TRI	1.003	0.7121	9	0.0000	0.0000	204882
EVV	0.991	0.6854	9	0.0000	0.0000	204219
PHF	1.022	0.7561	9	0.0000	0.0000	199079
STX	1.001	0.7066	9	0.0000	0.0000	196039
MRY	0.989	0.6795	9	0.0000	0.0000	191858
BMI	1.034	0.7843	9	0.0000	0.0000	188355
DRO	1.008	0.7247	9	0.0000	0.0000	187786
GTF	1.092	0.9194	9	0.0000	0.0000	176585
MGM	0.972	0.6397	9	0.0000	0.0000	172646
EGE	0.964	0.6211	9	0.0000	0.0000	163223
SBP	0.981	0.6619	9	0.0000	0.0000	162719
LNK	1.037	0.7911	9	0.0000	0.0000	162485
LAN	1.006	0.7202	9	0.0000	0.0000	161078
BET	1.103	0.9441	9	0.0000	0.0000	155791
AZO	1.020	0.7511	9	0.0000	0.0000	154196
MOT	1.042	0.8030	9	0.0000	0.0000	150418
OAJ	1.006	0.7196	9	0.0000	0.0000	149299
IDA	1.073	0.8755	9	0.0000	0.0000	146205
LBE	0.959	0.6091	9	0.0000	0.0000	145756
ELM	1.036	0.7892	9	0.0000	0.0000	139559
SWF	0.916	0.5107	9	0.0000	0.0000	138524
GRK	1.056	0.8363	9	0.0000	0.0000	136559
SCE	0.977	0.6515	9	0.0000	0.0000	133924
GFK	1.051	0.8228	9	0.0000	0.0000	132451
PBG	0.920	0.5194	9	0.0000	0.0000	129613
KTN	1.043	0.8058	9	0.0000	0.0000	127881
IAG	0.878	0.4225	9	0.0000	0.0000	125510
DLH	0.992	0.6864	9	0.0000	0.0000	124079
MBS	0.992	0.6859	9	0.0000	0.0000	122054
CWA	1.008	0.7244	9	0.0000	0.0000	119121
AEX	0.996	0.6953	9	0.0000	0.0000	116354
MTJ	0.977	0.6520	9	0.0000	0.0000	116267
RST	1.016	0.7432	9	0.0000	0.0000	112712
HDN	0.969	0.6334	9	0.0000	0.0000	107312
EWN	1.023	0.7587	9	0.0000	0.0000	106110
PSE	0.989	0.6809	9	0.0000	0.0000	104458
HLN	1.120	0.9826	9	0.0000	0.0000	103061
MLU	1.006	0.7189	9	0.0000	0.0000	102342
BRO	1.038	0.7945	9	0.0000	0.0000	102192
BFL	1.043	0.8058	9	0.0000	0.0000	100322
LRD	1.026	0.7656	9	0.0000	0.0000	94972
SPI	0.985	0.6713	9	0.0000	0.0000	93247
CPR	1.089	0.9125	9	0.0000	0.0000	92672
LSE	1.069	0.8650	9	0.0000	0.0000	90151
ITH	1.007	0.7219	9	0.0000	0.0000	88657
ERI	0.985	0.6705	9	0.0000	0.0000	87631
FSM	1.039	0.7957	9	0.0000	0.0000	83820
ADQ	1.061	0.8479	9	0.0000	0.0000	79696
SIT	1.074	0.8760	9	0.0000	0.0000	79061
CLL	1.034	0.7850	9	0.0000	0.0000	78714
SGU	1.089	0.9126	9	0.0000	0.0000	78650
SUN	0.914	0.5066	9	0.0000	0.0000	77713
LWS	1.127	1.0000	9	0.0000	0.0000	72724
YUM	1.086	0.9038	9	0.0000	0.0000	71844
SAF	0.898	0.4692	9	0.0000	0.0000	71200
ACV	0.881	0.4286	9	0.0000	0.0000	69732
ISN	1.051	0.8242	9	0.0000	0.0000	68846
BGM	1.018	0.7476	9	0.0000	0.0000	68401
OTZ	1.056	0.8349	9	0.0000	0.0000	64481
FLG	1.034	0.7843	9	0.0000	0.0000	64461
ACT	0.978	0.6542	9	0.0000	0.0000	64292
OME	1.023	0.7585	9	0.0000	0.0000	60636
ORH	0.886	0.4407	9	0.0000	0.0000	57775
LCH	1.042	0.8028	9	0.0000	0.0000	53563
TYR	1.096	0.9276	9	0.0000	0.0000	52488
SCC	1.091	0.9159	9	0.0000	0.0000	51205
LAW	1.004	0.7145	9	0.0000	0.0000	51023
DHN	0.968	0.6318	9	0.0000	0.0000	49406
MQT	1.012	0.7324	9	0.0000	0.0000	45384
BRW	1.059	0.8432	9	0.0000	0.0000	45300
CSG	0.990	0.6817	9	0.0000	0.0000	44811
ROW	1.015	0.7395	9	0.0000	0.0000	44378
RDD	0.917	0.5139	9	0.0000	0.0000	43311
GTR	1.006	0.7198	9	0.0000	0.0000	40789
COD	1.045	0.8104	9	0.0000	0.0000	40335
VLD	1.008	0.7230	9	0.0000	0.0000	40215
SMX	0.912	0.5002	9	0.0000	0.0000	40118
TWF	1.052	0.8258	9	0.0000	0.0000	38865
BQK	1.013	0.7353	9	0.0000	0.0000	36052
GUC	0.952	0.5930	9	0.0000	0.0000	34975
PIH	1.099	0.9339	9	0.0000	0.0000	34462
ABY	1.013	0.7345	9	0.0000	0.0000	34223
TXK	0.964	0.6221	9	0.0000	0.0000	33564
UST	0.945	0.5771	9	0.0000	0.0000	28647
PPG	1.015	0.7406	9	0.0000	0.0000	28641
GCC	1.091	0.9154	9	0.0000	0.0000	28383
JLN	1.010	0.7296	9	0.0000	0.0000	27911
ABR	1.067	0.8604	9	0.0000	0.0000	26529
BPT	0.929	0.5418	9	0.0000	0.0000	26518
MEI	0.963	0.6198	9	0.0000	0.0000	26359
BTM	1.094	0.9238	9	0.0000	0.0000	25877
BJI	1.065	0.8557	9	0.0000	0.0000	25510
CMX	0.947	0.5816	9	0.0000	0.0000	25435
PLN	0.987	0.6749	9	0.0000	0.0000	25366
MMH	0.696	0.0000	9	0.0000	0.0000	21921
EAU	1.029	0.7726	9	0.0000	0.0000	21296
PSG	1.043	0.8059	9	0.0000	0.0000	21181
CIU	1.018	0.7461	9	0.0000	0.0000	20946
RHI	1.029	0.7733	9	0.0000	0.0000	20371
PAH	0.989	0.6807	9	0.0000	0.0000	20259
CDV	1.066	0.8572	9	0.0000	0.0000	18649
BRD	1.069	0.8648	9	0.0000	0.0000	18315
MKG	0.913	0.5031	9	0.0000	0.0000	18056
ESC	1.002	0.7103	9	0.0000	0.0000	16491
RKS	1.081	0.8936	9	0.0000	0.0000	16107
LAR	1.030	0.7755	9	0.0000	0.0000	15951
EKO	1.100	0.9376	9	0.0000	0.0000	14891
HOB	1.031	0.7771	9	0.0000	0.0000	14705
OTH	0.783	0.2032	9	0.0000	0.0000	14637
CDC	1.083	0.8985	9	0.0000	0.0000	14413
INL	1.031	0.7766	9	0.0000	0.0000	13826
HIB	1.005	0.7163	9	0.0000	0.0000	12654
IMT	1.033	0.7817	9	0.0000	0.0000	12593
WRG	1.027	0.7681	9	0.0000	0.0000	12575
PIB	1.017	0.7454	9	0.0000	0.0000	12365
YAK	1.079	0.8880	9	0.0000	0.0000	10750
APN	0.993	0.6901	9	0.0000	0.0000	9972
HYS	1.011	0.7316	9	0.0000	0.0000	8265
DVL	1.000	0.7046	9	0.0000	0.0000	8209
JMS	0.991	0.6848	9	0.0000	0.0000	7941
ADK	0.908	0.4926	9	0.0000	0.0000	2151