The aim of this study is to identify and analyze efficiency drivers in international airports. To this end, a research was designed in three parts. The first part is an exploratory study of the literature, which supports a proposal for a representative structure of the typical operations of an international airport and allows the identification of 27 efficiency drivers implemented at airports in order to obtain the study objectives. The second part is a quantitative analysis of 33 Brazilian international airports, which allows them to be classified into different levels of efficiency. For that, two analysis techniques were used: a Two-Stage Data Envelopment Analysis (Two-Stage DEA), which allowed the comparison of efficiency levels between airports; and the Malmquist Index (mi), which allows comparing levels of comparison over time. A third part of the research was a multiple case study that investigated the degree of implementation of the 27 practices at three airports selected for different levels of efficiency. Evidence was found that confirms 17 out of 27 efficiency drivers.