About the Group
The Airport Benchmarking Group (ABG) was established in 2017 by Heathrow Airport and the Airport Authority Hong Kong, in cooperation with the Transport Strategy Centre at Imperial College London. It provides a confidential forum for major hub airports to learn from each other by comparing performance, sharing experiences, and identifying best practices for the benefit of passengers, the environment, and the wider public. It is based on a unique, proven benchmarking model with an annual cycle focused on continuous improvement. The ABG now comprises of nine hub airports.
What is Benchmarking?
Benchmarking is defined as a systematic process of continuously measuring, comparing and understanding organisations’ performance and changes in performance of a diversity of key business processes against comparable peers to gain information which will help the participating organisations to improve their performance.
Benefits of Airport Benchmarking
Benchmarking can be used by airports to:
- Determine strengths and weaknesses
- Enable better decision making across industry, regulators and government
- Prioritise areas for improvement
- Help to set challenging but achievable internal targets for improvement
- Provide comparative information for senior managers (e.g. trend analysis, relative performance differences, etc.)
- Inform stakeholders through comparable data sharing
- Support dialogue with stakeholders (e.g. senior management, board, government)
- Quantifying what a ‘World Leading’ airport looks like
The Group’s Objectives
Measure Performance
To develop a concise, well-balanced and comparable Key Performance Indicator system for performance measurement in areas including safety, security, quality, efficiency and the environment in a way which benefits consumers.
Understand and Identify
To provide benefits to all members by understanding the reasons for performance levels and trends, where best practices lie, leading to further analysis and drill down.
Share Knowledge
To facilitate the sharing of knowledge and best or otherwise interesting practices in a confidential environment.
Continuous Process
To establish an ongoing benchmarking process that considers the financial and labour resources available to participating airports.
The Group’s Guiding Principles
Cooperation, independence, speed, depth and confidentiality are the guiding principles of the group and are central to its success. The group is fully compliant with EU competition law.
Group Administration and Benchmarking Analytics
The group is administered and facilitated by the Transport Strategy Centre (TSC) at Imperial College London, which leads the ABG’s benchmarking analysis. The TSC is a world leader in transport benchmarking. The TSC was set up in 1992 to serve the transport industry on strategic, technology, economic and policy issues and as a research and consultancy unit within the Centre for Transport Studies.
Other Benchmarking Groups at the Transport Strategy Centre
The Airport Benchmarking Group is one of a family of benchmarking groups facilitated by the Transport Strategy Centre. These include both North American and international benchmarking groups for the metro, bus, and rail sectors. All combined, they represent more than 100 transit agencies. The current groups are the:
- Community of Metros (COMET)
- International Suburban Rail Benchmarking Group (ISBeRG)
- International Bus Benchmarking Group (IBBG)
- American Bus Benchmarking Group (ABBG)
- Benchmarking Group of North American Light Rail Systems (GOAL)
- International Mainline Rail Benchmarking Group (IMRBG)
- Railway Infrastructure Asset Management Benchmarking Group (RIAMBiG)
- International Light Rail and Tram Benchmarking Group (BOLTS)
