3 Either technical or marketing performances, depending from actor's position and role. 4 As in the air transport business as a whole, strict regulation rules were a consequence of the strategic role of airports and of the invest- ment needs to build or upgrade new or existing infrastructures. * Tel.: #39-2-5836-6868 fax: #39-2-5836-6888. E-mail address: david.jarach@sdabocconi.it (D. Jarach). 1 When the handling agent is a di!erent and independent actor from the airport authority. 2 Car rentals are included owing to their increasing participation in the creation of bundle o!ers, namely air ticket#car rental packages, targeted to the "nal audience, either leisure and business one. Journal of Air Transport Management 7 (2001) 119}125 The evolution of airport management practices: towards a multi-point, multi-service, marketing-driven "rm David Jarach* Marketing Department, SDA Bocconi Business School, Via Bocconi, 8, 20136 Milan, Italy Abstract After decades of standstill in both strategic and competitive practices within industry borders, the airport business has recently shown proof of new proactive, marketing-driven approaches towards the market. The role of airports has been evolving, from a mono-modal to a multimodal hub approach, to the `multipoint "rma concept. This kind of enterprise seems, in its best practices, capable of serving various demand clusters with an array of di!erent value propositions: attractions for tourists and aviation enthusiasts, congressional and logistic facilities, shopping venues and consulting services appear the most relevant ones. This paper investigates the evolving pro"le of airports towards the `airport as a "rma concept. This goal has been achieved through the implementation of more complex forms of service packages in order to satisfy evolving needs of enriched audiences, rather than identifying with the traditional audience, air passengers and air transport employees only. The paper highlights examples of `best practicea in the European airport industry. The Italian airport industry and its late evolution towards the `airport-as-a-"rma approach is given particular attention throughout the paper. ( 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Airport marketing Services marketing Airport retailing Multipoint service "rm 1. The airport business within the air transport industry Air transport business is a rather complex macro- industry. Within the industry, a mass of activities are being undertaken by a complementary and combined network of actors: passenger and cargo airlines, integ- rators, airport authorities, handling agents,1 in-#ight catering "rms, General Sales Agents, car rentals,2 air brokers, hardware providers like aircraft manufacturers and air terminal building "rms, tour operators and travel agents, all of them striving to satisfy, at least partly, end demand needs. From an industry-based macro-analysis, on the one hand, the quantitative and qualitative amount of com- mercial transactions, the proliferation in the number of competitors and the return on investment for each category of actor depend both on the pace of deregula- tion practices in every sub-business considered, and on the trend of expansion of air travel services as a whole (Valdani and Jarach, 1997). From a deeper marketing point of view, on the other hand, actors' formal business- to business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) rela- tions may be drawn inside a model aimed at showing dependency on complementary sub-performances3 in or- der to bundle service packages to "nal audiences: this model can be described as the `air transport pipelinea. Here, the interaction and combination of actors' out- puts match up to generate a range of diversi"ed value propositions aimed at satisfying customers' clusters: leisure and business passengers, from one side and pro- duction or service "rms, on the other, when referring to the cargo/logistic context. Fig. 1 illustrates the `air trans- port pipelinea and draws the main formal B2B and B2C market relations between pipeline actors. Focusing now on the airport environment, strict regu- lation rules4 of industry boundaries and the position of 0969-6997/01/$- see front matter ( 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 9 6 9 - 6 9 9 7 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 0 3 8 - 7

5 This position seems to be peculiar if compared with other market environments. On the contrary, it is quite common in the air transport business as a whole. If we take a look at the airline business, for example, the same approach is working within the `#ag carriera concept. 6 This tactic is still today widely used, most de"nitively by secondary airports and, particularly, to attract low-cost carriers on #agship routes as a clear instrument to generate economic externalities to the community. Fig. 1. The air transport pipeline. 7 As it does not put pro"ts and return on investment as its primary goals. State agencies and local governments as airports' and airport authorities' direct investors and managers5 have long prevented a marketing-oriented approach targeted at the end customer as the `multi-item service usera (Valdani and Jarach, 1996). In fact, airports have basi- cally had to operate as tools for macro-economic externalities' generation, promoting the industrial rather than tourist development of their own area. Thus, apart from stimulating the development of the airport terminal as a `service providera of a wide array of services for the target audience, the mission of airports has in practice dealt only with the attraction of the largest number of carriers, most de"nitively on #agship routes as a public service for the community as a whole. This goal has been followed even thanks to huge subsi- dies to carriers as to let them start operations on the site6 (Valdani and Jarach, 1997). In this sense, the traditional role of airports was related to the focus on airlines as their main customers and on regional macroeconomic industrial development as their main public policy objective. In other words, the airport works as a logistic medium, but seldom as a real business "rm,7 to satisfy undi!erentiated core air transportation needs of its catchment area's target as a point of access and facilitation between airline services and demand clusters. According to this interpretation, the airport would, thus, seem to act its role as mono-modal actor within the infrastructural package of each nation: we may de"ne this attitude as the mono-modal approach. Its main strategic and operative goals appear focused on core inbound and outbound air tra$c maximisation, in terms of daily passengers and goods handled (Jarach, 1999). This approach, however, underlines the peripheral position of the airport entity in the air transport pipeline. As the airport does not choose to adopt a de"nitive and clear B2C, marketing-oriented approach, it neither suc- ceeds in playing a primary role in understanding, stimu- lating and matching end-customer needs, nor in playing an active part in trying to satisfy them through service adaptation and personalisation. Air transport channel- leaders, like airlines and tour operators strive to manage primary and secondary demand, while airports, are prevented from controlling direct demand in#uxes. Weakness of this kind of conduct becomes evident when face-to-face competition between airports increases and becomes aggressive, due to new comers' or existing 120 D. Jarach / Journal of Air Transport Management 7 (2001) 119}125