Conclusion
Regarding the airport, it was identified that the time indicator of customs operations carries the major weight in choosing the cargo terminal. Furthermore, this indicator may be responsible for the choice of using an airport to export perishable products while disregarding external variables related to airport access, such as distance and freight cost. The results show that the greater the operational performance of the airport is, the greater is its scope, meaning that the distance between the locations of the exporter and transporter of air cargo becomes a factor of little relevance. In relation to the decision makers, it was possible to identify that poor prioritization of airport selection criteria may result in loss of road freight, leading to increased costs of the export chain and directly affecting the competitiveness of the fruit in the external market. Moreover, it has been identified that if the exporter prioritizes time, this can result in an increase of up to 23% in the access cost to the airport. It was noted that AHP is recommended to evaluate the decision involving questions of airport choice, however, this method is not recommended for evaluating many different criteria because the comparison matrix would be very extensive and respondents might not be willing to respond. Although the respondents in this study present great representativeness in the mango export industry, the sampling was relatively small. For future studies, it is suggested to verify the priority of criteria with a larger sample. In addition, as well as the connectivity in the air freight industry is analyzed by Boonekamp and Burghouwt (2017), future studies could also consider the spatial distribution of these airports in the operational viability of air cargo transport. Other studies also can be conducted with the purpose of verifying the relation between cost and time in the decisions for choosing specific cargo airports for exporting nonperishable products.
