Wake Forest’s new business analytics program helps Business Journals rate airport efficiency

The American City Business Journals has created its first-ever Airport Power Rankings with help from Wake Forest University School of Business.

The analysis draws from U.S. Department of Transportation statistics with supporting research from ACBJ’s 43 newsrooms and analysis provided by faculty at Wake Forest University’s School of Business. The findings are quantitative and subjective, and they spotlight both where the industry is headed and the airports leading the charge.

So how does one decipher whether an airport is operating at a greater level of efficiency compared to its peers? According to Jeffrey Camm, the Inmar Presidential Chair in Business Analytics at Wake Forest University’s school of business, the answer boils down to identifying a consistent set of inputs and outputs that all subject airports share. From there, it’s about accepting that no two organizations are ever exactly alike, and that outliers and exceptions will always sway the rankings. Essentially, it’s all a bit of a back-of-the-envelope approach to measuring efficiency.

“There’s always the potential for inconsistencies,” said Camm, who compiled an efficiency-scoring system that was applied to ACBJ’s rankings.

Read the full story in the New York Business Journal.