The impact of public service delegation (PSD) on the activity of local airports

The airport reform introduced by the 2004 law, which decentralised the 150 local airports to local authorities, allowed private operators to enter the French airport network with the implementation of the public service delegation (PSD) regime. This empirical study aims to identify the effects of the implementation of the Public Service Delegation (PSD) on the activity of local airports. To carry out this work, we use data from the French Civil Aviation Authority (DGAC) on the activity of local airports from 1990 to 2017 and with regular commercial activity during this period. These data characterise the annual evolution of seven variables measuring airport activity: number of passengers (distinguishing low cost and traditional), number of movements, number of companies (low-cost and traditional), number of services, load factor and number of tonnes of freight. The statistical processing of these data allows a comparative analysis between the airports that have been awarded a DPS by the others and between two periods (before and after 2004). Several results emerge from this study. The first one highlights a transfer of activity to the benefit of the airports under PSD: the number of passengers of low-cost companies increases in these airports at the expense of the passengers of traditional companies and freight. This transfer is very clear after 2004. The second result underlines a decrease in the number of companies serving the airports under PSD with a concomitant increase in the aircraft load factor.

L’objectif de cette étude est d’identifier les effets de la mise en place de la DSP sur l’activité des aéroports. Elle est réalisée à partir des données de la DGAC sur des aéroports ayant une activité régulière de 1990 à 2017. Ces données caractérisent sept variables : nombre de passagers, mouvements d’avions, nombre de compagnies et de dessertes, taux de remplissage et nombre de tonnes de fret. Plusieurs résultats sont obtenus. Le premier souligne le transfert d’activité au profit des aéroports en DSP avec une augmentation du nombre de passagers des compagnies low cost. Le second montre une baisse du nombre de compagnies desservant les aéroports sous DSP avec une hausse en parallèle du taux de remplissage.