Optimal assignment of airport baggage unloading zones to outgoing flights

The outbound airport baggage handling system (BHS) consists of a set of unloading zones (chutes) which are assigned to outgoing flights. Airport baggage operations have inherent uncertainties such as flight delays and varying number of bags. In this paper, the chute assignment problem is modeled as a Stochastic Vector Assignment Problem (SVAP) and multiple extensions are presented to incorporate the various design needs of the airport. A real airport outbound BHS is presented. This case study also guided the optimization models’ design process. The performance of the optimization models is compared with the methods used in practice and literature.     

Lessons learnt from the market for air freight ground handling at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol

On 16 April 2013, the European Parliament adopted a new, amended airport ground handling Regulation, which will replace the old Directive 96/67 EC on ground handling services. The new Regulation will further open up European airports for competition on the ground handling market. Even long before the introduction of Directive 96/67/EC, Amsterdam Airport has had a liberalised handling regime. Against the background of the further liberalisation of the European ground handling market, this paper investigates the characteristics of the open ground handling market for air cargo at Amsterdam Airport and the lessons that can be learnt from the Amsterdam experience. We find that an open handling market brings greater freedom of choice for airlines and lower handling fees. However, we do not see any (serious) market failure for the airport that would justify intervention by the market regulator, by limiting the number of handlers for example.     

Assessing the suitability of airport ground handling agents

Aircraft ground handling is an essential part of an air operation and determines its punctuality and safety. Ground support equipment vehicles (GSE) are used in most of the handling tasks. This puts certain requirements on the candidates for ground handling agents, especially on their psychophysical features. This study aimed at determining a professional profile of the candidate, defining expectations and requirements for the future employee and developing a quantitative method of assessing suitability for work as a GSE operator. Since some features characterizing the employee are not measurable, and the relations between features are imprecise and often subjective, fuzzy models based on linguistic variables were used to build the assessment method. A computer implementation of the fuzzy inference system was used for the assessment of exemplary candidates for the position of fuel tanker operator. The obtained results show that the applied approach makes it possible to easily compare the candidates’ suitability for work at this position. The simulation experiments also showed that the method allows for the creation of individualized training programs based on partial assessments of individual traits of candidates.     

Assessing performance variability of ground handlers to comply with airport quality standards

The increasing competition in the air transport industry continuously pushes ground handlers to improve their performance. Recent European regulations prescribe that the managing body of large European airports (more than 5,000,000 passengers/year or 100,000 tonnes/year of freight) have to define quality standards of service level for ground handler operations. In case a handler fails to meet these minimum requirements, the airport has to report it these irregularities, potentially imposing a fine or even suspending, partly or fully, the handler’s services. As always recognized by the passengers, one of the most critical quality standards is the baggage handling waiting time. This paper defines a methodology to assess whether the handler fits the requirements of first baggage delivery for both the overall process and the specific segments (flight, conveyor belt, departing airport, day of the week, etc.). The methodology, analysing the performance by a two-dimensional perspective (structure and frequency), will help the decision makers in defining mitigating actions to take the performance under statistical control, respecting the requirements and preventing any drift.     

Challenges for ground operations arising from aircraft concepts using alternative energy

Current research in the field of future aircraft concepts aims at accommodating ambitious reduction goals set by national and international regulators. These concepts should be investigated not only with regard to aircraft efficiency, but also in terms of their compatibility with airline operations, existing ground handling procedures and airport infrastructure requirements, as these influence the overall performance of a future aircraft concept. This paper addresses this aspect, focusing on case studies concerning hybrid-electric and universally-electric aircraft concepts, analyzing implications for current ground handling operations at the airport. Current bottlenecks, such as capacity shortages, and potential areas of improvement are identified based on a state-of-the-art reference ground handling process. To this end, requirements of different stakeholders, including airports, airlines and ground handling providers, are outlined. In the next step, insights are contrasted with operational requirements of the future aircraft concepts under consideration. The paper stresses the anticipated challenges involved in aligning future aircraft requirements with current procedures, discusses the necessary adaptions to operational processes. The results highlight changes that need to be made to the current system before an aircraft can enter service, and provide an initial basis for the strategic planning of the stakeholders involved.     

Surface movement ground control by means of a GPS–GIS system

Despite the traffic increases at the World's airports, little works have been done on methodologies to improve vehicles and airplanes ground control. This may be leading to reduced safety. Here an integrated system is developed to help guarantee suitable separations of land vehicles and airplanes moving on the airport ground area It can also addressed issues of the optimal use of taxi and runways. The system is composed of global positioning systems hardware, checks on the position of land vehicles and airplanes on the ground in real time, and special-purpose geographical information systems software for the tracking of land vehicles and airplanes within different planning operations.     

Holistic view of safety culture in aircraft ground handling: Integrating qualitative and quantitative methods with data triangulation

The complexity in aircraft ground handling operations has led this study to conduct a holistic assessment on the ground handling safety culture, with the purpose of preventing accidents at the workplace. This study adopts the multiple perspective assessment model that allows the integration of two mixed methods designed with data triangulation. The qualitative results generated seven themes and eight themes respectively, in which were later generalized and developed for quantitative instrument. The quantitative results showed the industry's safety culture performance and its influence on the safety performance outcome constructs. This study is expected to contribute towards the development of safety culture evaluation for this industry and becomes a stakeholder's indicator to improve safety and health standards.     

Substantial effect of voluntary policy interventions on aircraft ground handling safety

Managing safety and health matters require comprehensive policy intervention to change the existing culture in the ground handling operations and reducing the safety performance outcomes. This study aims to investigate the relationship between safety culture and safety performance outcome with voluntary policy intervention as the moderating effect of the relationship. The study employed a quantitative method through a survey instrument, which was participated by 423 ground handling workers from six international airports in Malaysia. The results indicated seven hypotheses in direct relationships have positive association between safety culture and safety performance construct. While for moderator relationships, there were five hypotheses found to be statistically significant and supported. The presence of voluntary policy interventions were found to be beneficial or detrimental elements for the insignificant relationships of the study. The ground handling organisation is expected to utilise these results by strengthening their organisation safety culture and prioritise safety and health matters over demand and cost.     

Strategies for collaborative funding of intermodal airport ground access projects

Projects to improve airport ground access not only provide important intermodal connections but can also present difficult funding challenges. This paper reviews the recent literature on funding airport ground access projects as well as some of the wider literature on funding transportation projects in general in the United States (U.S.) that is indirectly relevant to airport ground access projects. This is followed by a review of current U.S. federal transportation funding programs relevant to airport ground access projects, as well as a discussion of state and local funding programs and potential opportunities for private sector funding. The paper then describes several case studies of airport ground access project funding that were undertaken as part of this research. Based on this discussion, the paper discusses potential funding strategies for intermodal airport ground access projects in the U.S., requirements for effective implementation of these strategies, and a recommended approach to facilitate successful project development and implementation. It also presents recommended changes to the transportation funding program rules and regulations in the U.S. that could facilitate and simplify the development of intermodal solutions to meet future airport ground access needs.     

Factors influencing cargo agents choice of operations in Abuja airport,Nigeria

The ability of an airport to attract traffic can vary within a multi-airport model of operation and highly competitive environment. This study is an effort to examine the factors that cargo agents rank as most important in their choice of Abuja airport cargo transhipment operations. A questionnaire survey was conducted on a random sample of members of the Association of Nigeria Customs Licensed Agents (ANCLA) at Abuja airport for primary data collection. The study employed a combination of Factor Analysis (FA) and Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) to analyse the data collected. The results of the factor loadings indicate airport capacity, airport charges and customs efficiency as the most significant factors that agents consider in their choice of handling cargo through Abuja airport. The three variables were found to have a high correlation relationship (R = 0.802) with the dependent variable of airport choice after subjecting it to regression analysis. This serves as information to airport managers for the airport planning of capacity in cargo operations within multi-airport country such as Nigeria.     

Probabilistic assessment of fleet-level noise impacts of projected technology improvements

Demand projections for civil aviation have forecast increases in operations in future decades. Increases in demand are beneficial to the growth and advancement of the aviation industry, but also come with the threat of significant increase in environmental impacts. In response, the industry is focusing on programs to develop technologies for reductions in fuel burn, NO_x emissions, and noise. While aircraft-level impacts are an obvious metric of success, it is difficult to make informed robust technology investment decisions with respect to noise without understanding the fleet-level impacts. Fleet-level predictions of noise for technology explorations are especially complicated because it is computationally expensive, highly combinatorial, and airport-specific. Recently, rapid automated airport noise models have been developed, which can be simulated using Design of Experiments (DOE). The results of these simulations are used to generate surrogate models for airport noise contour area, which can be summed to yield a fleet-level impact. These models make use of simplifying assumptions to provide estimates of airport-level noise that are substantially cheaper to compute. They can be used to perform parametric trade-off analyses in conjunction with the equivalency assumption. Equivalency asserts that environmental impacts of a technology infused aircraft can be represented by scaled operations of the baseline aircraft in the same class. This simple assumption allows for the modeling of technology and market penetration factors under the same units: operations. This research uses surrogate models in conjunction with the equivalency assumption to examine two potential technology scenarios in a target forecast year, simulating technology and market performance factors to identify vehicle classes that could have the greatest impact in reducing contour area. Results show that technology and market performance of future notional Small Single Aisle and Large Single Aisle vehicle aircraft have the highest positive correlations with potential reductions in contour area.     

A multi-objective optimization with a delay-aware component for airport stand allocation

Airport management is regularly challenged by the task of assigning flights to existing parking positions in the most efficient way while complying with existing policies, restrictions and capacity limitations. However, such process is frequently disrupted by various events, affecting punctuality of airline operations. This paper describes an innovative approach for obtaining an efficient stand assignment considering the stochastic nature of airport environment. Furthermore, the presented methodology combines benefits of Bayesian modelling and metaheuristics for generating solutions that are more robust to airport flight schedule perturbations. In addition, this paper illustrates that the application of the presented methodology combined with simulation provides a valuable tool for assessing the robustness of the developed stand assignment to flight delays.     

The impact of terminal re-organisation on belly-hold freight operation chains at airports

While it is widely acknowledged that airport re-organisation from destination to dedicated airline group terminals makes passenger travel more seamless, more efficient and also more profitable for both airlines and airports, there is little known about the impacts of such change on freight and in particular belly-hold cargo chains. Our analysis includes data from all airports in Australia but focuses primarily on the proposed re-organisation of Sydney Kingsford Smith airport. This paper reveals a significant relationship between international freight volumes, terminal organisation and freighter operations. However, our interview results only confirm the volume/aircraft type relationship. The paper aims to contribute to the general discussion on the impact of passenger terminal organisation on belly-hold freight operations and more specifically to the consultation process around airport master planning.     

Estimating the mean waiting time in airports through cooperative disaster response operations

Airport use rises in response to the need to transport people and deliver aid following a disaster episode. However, owing to unexpected demand and the availability of multiple aircraft operators and organizations, the fluctuating waiting time in airports has become an operational bottleneck. This requires airports to carry out cooperative disaster response operations in the region to relieve congestion and reduce response time. This study develops a model to estimate the mean waiting time in airports through cooperative disaster response operations, using an open Jackson network model. It presents a numerical example to understand the different operational schemes. The result shows that assignment by adjusting the transition probability to meet the airport's service rate is the optimal case through cooperative operations. The policy implication for airport operators is that airports must be prepared to handle a balanced role assignment during disaster responses.     

On load balancing strategies for baggage screening at airports

We study load balancing policies for an airport baggage handling system (BHS). The performance of the screening subsystem is important as it can potentially cause traffic congestion of the whole BHS during peak period. Currently, the round-robin (RR) and the first-available (FA) polices are implemented at airports. This paper presents a simulative approach to evaluate the impact of load balancing policies on the system performance. Using discrete-event simulations, airport practitioners can assess the effectiveness of the policies according to the actual layout of a particular passenger terminal. In addition to the RR and FA, a join-shortest-queue (JSQ) policy is introduced. This scheme can be applied jointly with the RR for daily operations. A case study is presented to illustrate the characteristics of this scheme. Simulation results demonstrate that the RR-JSQ can replace the existing RR-FA for a better balanced load distribution and improve the overall system performance.     

Offsite passenger service facilities: A viable option for airport access?

Offsite passenger service facilities transfer passengers from a common location to an airport and may provide additional services such as baggage handling and passenger check-in. Although they are conceptually promising, there is a lack of modern methods specifically tailored to forecast their demand. This paper reports on the development of two sequential models that forecast demand for an offsite facility. Models were calibrated based on data collected at six airports in California, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Virginia. The results showed that likely candidates for an offsite facility are airports that are not easily accessible, and departing air passengers with early morning flight departure times and high variability in ground travel times to the airport. A case study demonstrates the application of the models to Virginia’s Richmond International Airport.     

A dynamic approach for aircraft assignment and maintenance scheduling by airlines

The problems of assigning planes to flights and of fleet maintenance operations scheduling are considered in this paper. While recent approaches make use of artificial intelligence techniques running on main frame computers to solve combinatorial optimization problems for nominal operations, a dynamic approach is proposed here to face on-line operation conditions. The proposed solution mixes a Dynamic Programming approach (to cope with the fleet assignment problem) and a heuristic technique (to solve the embedded maintenance schedule problem). When applied to a medium charter airline, this approach shows acceptability characteristics for operational staffs, while providing efficient solutions. The proposed solution scheme can be considered as the basis for the development of an on-line decision support system for fleet operations management within airlines.     

Improving US airport taxicab services through governance arrangements

Most airports internationally have implemented customer satisfaction programs into their operations to increase non-aeronautical revenues. In the US, taxicabs are an essential airport transport mode given the limited public transport options available. Effective airport taxicab planning efforts can increase airport customer satisfaction levels, as well as facilitate handling increased airport passenger volumes. However, little is known on how US airports have adapted their governance practices from a traditional hierarchical to a network approach in their efforts to undertake airport taxicab planning initiatives since the deregulation of the transportation industry. Data acquired from 51 US hub airports is used to examine their existing taxicab planning practices. The findings offer how US airports can modify governance processes in their airport taxicab planning processes to better support increases in the customer satisfaction levels of airport taxicab patrons.     

Efficiency and patterns of service mix in airport companies: An input distance function approach

In this paper an input distance function approach is used to evaluate efficiency and technological characteristics of Italian airport companies for the period 2000–2005. This approach is robust to deviations from neoclassical paradigm in terms of cost-minimizing behavior. Duality relationship between the input distance function and the shadow cost function is exploited to derive cost complementarities among outputs. Empirical findings are used to discuss the economic implications connected to changes in airport organization, involving in particular outsourcing of handling operations and development of commercial activities.     

Future aircraft turnaround operations considering post-pandemic requirements

Air Transportation is a major contributor to international mobility and has high requirements to ensure safe and secure operations. Aircraft ground operations are impacted significantly by the current pandemic situation so that standard operating procedures need a redesign to incorporate the upcoming sanitation requirements. In particular, the passenger boarding process is challenged with requirements for physical distances between passengers, while in addition to standard cleaning, the cabin has to be disinfected after each flight. We evaluate potential alterations of these two aircraft cabin processes with respect to a pre-pandemic reference aircraft turnaround. The implementation of microscopic approaches allows to consider individual interactions and a step-wise process adaptation aiming for an efficient operational design. We find a significant extension of boarding times (more than doubled) if the physical distance rule is applied. The new disinfection process further extends the critical path of the turnaround, so we see a high impact on airport and airline operations. To compensate for the increased workload and process times, we provide an integrated cleaning and disinfection procedure with additional personnel. Our results indicate that the pre-pandemic turnaround times cannot be maintained for the same seat load, even if the process adaptations are being implemented. However, a seat allocation scheme with empty middle-seats (seat load of 67%) and the use of an apron position (additional use of rear aircraft door for boarding) enable pre-pandemic turnaround times without additional cleaning personnel. Aircraft turnarounds at terminal positions require between 10% (with additional personnel) and 20% (without additional personnel) more ground time.