Research On Analyzing And Promoting Comprehensive Competitiveness Of Guilin Airport

With China’s sustained rapid economic growth, the demand for air transport increases ceaselessly and Chinese air transportation industry greets vast development space. In order to meet the requirements of the rapid development of national economy, the Civil Aviation Administration of China clearly put forward in its12th five-year plan to build civil aviation power, and the central and local governments continue to increase investment in civil aviation infrastructure, especially in civil airport construction. It is expected that by2020, the number of China’s civil airports will reach244, and the increased airports will definitely lead to a increasingly fierce competition between airports.As an important tourist airport, Guilin airport receives a large number of domestic and foreign tourists every year. It had been the airport leader in Guangxi province depending on the increasing passengers. However, along with the launch of new civil aviation strategies and the development of other airports around the China, the leading position of Guilin airport has been replaced by Nanning airport in the province. Therefore, it is imperative to strengthen the competitiveness of Guilin airport to build a long-term competitive edge.This paper focuses on the competitiveness of airports. By studying the operating attributes of airports and the factors that impact the competitiveness of airports, it firstly constructs a model that demonstrates the forming and sustainable development mechanisms of airport competitiveness. Next, based on the model, it designs a set of specific metrics for evaluation of airport competitiveness, which include network connectivity, service quality, operating scale, operating efficiency, airport construction, development environment and tourist environment. Then, it utilizes factor analysis approach to compare Guilin airport with the airports in nearby provinces and cities. In the meantime, it applies SWOT to analyze advantages and disadvantages of and opportunities and challenges of Guilin airport, and compares the evaluation results with the metrics to put forward solutions for promotion of Guilin airport competitiveness, which include:increasing government investment; improving infrastructure; broadening the non-aviation business income; increasing international air-routes to ASEAN countries; attracting more international businessman/businesswomen and tourists; extending service channel to attract passengers from nearby area; expanding Guilin tourism market and tourism routes by playing Guilin city tourism resources to the full; actively integrating into the general traffic operation system to construct a multimodal transport system; reinforcing reform and encouraging innovation to promote service by means of brand marketing. Through the above research, I hope that the paper is able to provide useful decision support and references that will facilitate the sound and rapid development of small-medium sized airports.