Anotace:
The operation of air transport is one of the most significant factors in promoting economic growth and competitiveness within any given region. The present paper deals with an assessment of the performance of Germany’s 27 most important airports in terms of their technical efficiency. For this purpose, the authors employed the method of Data Envelopment Analysis. The first part of the paper focuses on a literature review on the use of the DEA method in assessing the performance of airports and air transport. For this DEA a list has been compiled of inputs and outputs that have been used by international authors in their publications to assess airport performance. The second part of the paper describes the methodology of the actual research. The 2016 annual reports from various airports served as the main source of data. The number of employees, number of runways and airport area were selected as inputs. As the outputs, two variables were chosen: number of aircraft movements and the amount of cargo. By applying input-oriented DEA, CCR and BCC models, 13 German airports have been identified that are able to efficiently transform the given inputs into outputs, as they employ the best practices and appropriate processes in their operations management. Five airports can also be described as facilities that have achieved the optimal and most productive size.