Research on High Technology-Importing Countries and the Profitability of European Zone ANSPs: A Combined Approach with Hybrid CRITIC-TOPSIS Method and Panel Regression Model

The aviation industry is closely and strongly related to a country’s policies and technological and economic capabilities. Air passenger and cargo logistics capacities, population, labour force, and GDP have an explanatory relationship with the air navigation service provider industry’s profitability. In this study, the authors assessed whether there is a relationship between the high technology-producing capacity of countries and air navigation service providers’ profitability across Europe. For this purpose, the hybrid CRITIC-TOPSIS method was used to determine the profitability performance scores of European ANSPs according to 13 different criteria. It utilises a two-way fixed effects regression model (individual effect-time effect included) with maximum likelihood estimates, fixed effects estimates, and random effects estimates. Fixed effects estimates show high performance. According to the findings, high-technology-importer countries also yielded more profitability from air navigation service-providing activities in the specific periods of 2017 and 2020 across Europe.