Ratio-based design hour determination for airport passenger terminal facilities

To avoid both over-design and under-sizing of airport passenger terminal facilities such as security checkpoints, the infrastructure is designed for a specifically determined design load. As such, the design load is considered for a short period of time, usually an hour of operation, during which peak, though not necessarily maximum, demand occurs. For strategic planning applications, future design loads can be determined by either fictitious flight schedules or ratio-based models which forecast the relationship between design load and annual demand. This study presents two ratio-based methods which allow the direct determination of design hour loads (DHL) for passenger terminal facilities. The unsaturated DHL model considers the relationship between observed passenger flows in the terminal and aggregated annual demand data. The saturated DHL model includes several operational constraints which limit the actual DHL, such as limitations in the runway system or the fleet mix operating at an airport. Both models are applied to two real-world airports, for which the DHL of the security checkpoint facilities is estimated from large datasets covering multiple years. Results are significant at the 5 % level and suggest that the proposed ratio-based methods are appropriate for airport strategic planning applications.     

Queue behavioural patterns for passengers at airport terminals: A machine learning approach

Passengers go through different handling processes inside airport terminal buildings. The quality of these processes is usually measured by the time passengers require and by the level of comfort experienced by them. We present an analysis of behavioural patterns in queues at check-in desks and security controls, which are two of the most critical processes regarding passenger service. The passengers' flow is simulated to obtain queue lengths at one busy European airport between 2014 and 2016, supported by real flight data. Simulation is designed as a store-and forward cell-based system, whose parameters have been tuned and validated with real data from observations and empirical capacity and demand studies within the airport. Random Forest algorithms are then implemented to develop different models for each parameter prediction, after a data analysis stage based on statistical and visualization methods. Feature analysis techniques between dependent variables and the target outputs (queue lengths) determine which are the fundamental elements to explain queue behaviour and to predict target variables. We provide a method to forecast behavioural patterns at check-in desks and security controls, to help airport operators to implement adequate response policies. Queue behavioural patterns are captured by Machine Learning models, which can be used to offer improved passenger services (such as real-time predictions for expected waiting time at queues), or can be considered in a dynamic approach for terminal services design (as the entire progress of terminal handling depends on the stochastic behaviour of passengers). This could be a key tool for managing passengers demand and optimise the infrastructure's capacity through resource allocation.     

Airport choice and flight connectivity among domestic and international passengers – Empirical analysis using passenger movement survey data in Japan

This paper presents an empirical analysis of airport choice and passenger movement on international flights from local cities in Japan to Narita and Haneda Airports in the Tokyo metropolitan area. This is the first study to evaluate airport choice behavior in Japan empirically by using the micro data collected by Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in 2010 (i.e., when time slots for international long-haul flights were first assigned at Haneda). The analysis confirms that flight connectivity is a crucial element in airport choice.Further, Japanese airlines and their associated alliances are able to attract passengers arriving from local cities by using Haneda airport. Above all, we find that the introduction of long-haul international flights from Haneda has met the needs of a number of passengers arriving from local cities in Japan owing to the convenience of the domestic flight network, especially for business purpose passengers.     

A methodology for establishing operational standards of airport passenger terminals

This paper discusses a methodology for establishing the operational standards of service performance of airport passenger terminals using a perception–response model. The proposed approach is defined by the graphical representation of passengers’ collective attitudes towards the range of operational service at an airport passenger terminal. It adopts new concepts to establish service standards through a special survey to better interpret terminal operations and service level at each facility. It is expressed in terms of passengers’ perception of various service levels and their response to the respective service conditions. The methodology may provide practical service standards of airport terminals and prove to be a practical and convenient technique to airport planners, designers, consultants, operators, and airport managers.     

Processing passengers efficiently: An analysis of airport processing times for international passengers

With immense and growing pressure on stakeholders in international airport terminals to process passengers faster than previously, there is a great benefit to understanding which factors affect passenger processing times and in which situations. In addition, storing and analysing the collected data in batch is itself a difficult and time consuming task that could be made much simpler with sequential analysis. We aim to present a method for airport managers to discover which variables are important to understanding passenger processing times and identifying problematic passenger profiles without the need for high computational capacity and full historical datasets.In this paper we introduce Bayesian hierarchical models as a method of sequentially processing data, reducing computation time and obviating storage of large amounts of raw data. We use a range of exploratory models to identify which variables are important to predicting passenger processing time using a dataset from a day of operations at an international airport terminal, then compare a range of regression models. A Bayesian hierarchical regression model based on the model of best fit discovered through exploration is then applied to two subsets of data. We demonstrate that sequential updating based on daily data achieves similar results to batch processing based on full historical datasets and can therefore be used as an alternative in appropriate circumstances. Using the presented models, we find that the airline operating a flight is the most important variable to determining passenger processing time, followed by each passenger's age, sex and nationality. We demonstrate that in our dataset, the passenger profiles correlated with higher mean processing times overall were not the same as those passengers most problematic for meeting processing time targets.     

Evaluation of level of service for transfer passengers at airports

Transfer passengers have quite different needs than those of originating and terminating passengers. For example, they do not make use of airport access roads. Other facilities may or may not be used depending on the type of transfers, the airport's operational configuration and the airline services. Despite the increasing importance of transfer passengers for airport operations, little research has been done to determine their needs. This study analyses transfer passengers’ views on the quality of services at the terminal building, using data collected at Bandaranaike International Airport in Sri Lanka, which aspires along with the airline ‘Sri Lankan’ to be a major hub for South Asia. Regression analysis was used to identify the transfer passenger facilities and services with the strongest effect on the overall perception of level of service. The application of regression analysis to the data collected at Bandaranaike International Airport shows that the courtesy of the security check staff and the quality of the Flight Information Display are among the most valued by transfer passengers at that airport.     

Access mode choice for relocated airports: the new Athens International Airport

To estimate the capacity requirements for all access related facilities of a new airport and to set pricing or operational policies it is necessary to forecast the share of each transport mode that airport passengers use. The development of these forecasts cannot be based on mere transfer of experience from other airports, particularly in the modern era of wide regulatory reforms, liberalization of the aviation market and increasing airport competition. First access modal split at the existing airport is determined via passenger classification and discrete choice modeling. Both are conducted via a passenger survey study specifically designed for this purpose. The resulting models are then employed to forecast access modal splits for the relocated airport by proper adjustment of the attribute values. The method is applied to the new Athens International Airport.     

Effects of non-aeronautical activities at airports on the public transport access system: A case study of Zurich Airport

Many planning authorities and airports study measures to increase public transport use for airport ground access and egress. At the same time, an increase in real estate development at and around airports is occurring, both due to airports seeking new revenue possibilities and other developers attempting to profit from high value locations. This paper considers non-aeronautical activities at large airports, largely commercial centres and transit hubs, as land uses that have the potential to improve the situation for operating public transport services. In order to assess potential benefits and disadvantages, four research questions are considered: (1) Can the additional travel volume reach levels at which it has a significant impact? (2) To what extent do non-aeronautical activities influence the public transport access system? (3) Is the resulting demand distribution better or worse regarding peaking behaviour? (4) Is there a potential for the resulting overall demand to bring about capacity shortages?A case study is conducted at the airport of Zurich, Switzerland, which finds that non-aeronautical activities in the direct airport vicinity have led to a situation where the operation of public transport services is much more viable due to overall higher passenger numbers and a more even distribution throughout the day. It is concluded that locating non-aeronautical activities at airports can, in addition to providing commercial benefits to developers, lead to a situation where improved public transport services become feasible.     

Airport operations and security screening: An examination of social justice

Airports are a crucial part of the United States transportation system and airport officials are continuously challenged to ensure that their operations are secure. A major part of providing airport security is implementing check points where passengers interface with the security screening system. The airlines and airport security administration receive negative publicity when passengers are mistreated at security check points. Further, these organizations spend a lot of time to assess the situation and take corrective actions. This study examines passenger perceived bias and the airport security screening system. Using data from a randomly selected sample of 145 airline passengers, six hypotheses are tested. The hypotheses exam the predictive relationships of control procedures, security personnel training, security personnel professionalism, and security screening systems on passenger perceived bias. Multiple regression analysis is used to test the hypotheses. The research findings indicate that security personnel professionalism is negatively and significantly related to passenger perceived bias. Also, security personnel training and security control procedures are positively and significantly related to security personnel professionalism. Management implications, limitations, and recommendations for future research are offered.     

Service quality of airports' food and beverage retailers. A fuzzy approach

Nowadays the profitability of airports is largely based on non-aeronautical or commercial activities, and particularly on retail and food and beverage services. Further, researchers concur that shopping, eating and drinking in airports have to be considered an important part of tourists' experience and activities that can significantly enhance or damage the tourist destination image. Despite this, there is still little research that analyses how service quality (SQ) is perceived by passengers consuming food and beverages (F&B) in airport areas. This study aims to deepen the scientific debate on this topic. Specifically, this study applies fuzzy numbers with a sample of 551 passengers flying from Olbia-Costa Smeralda Airport (Sardinia Region, Italy) with the aim of determining how they perceive the SQ delivered by F&B retailers and whether age plays a determinant role in segmentation. Findings reveal which F&B features outperform others; furthermore, they show that age is a moderating factor in consumer satisfaction, with older passengers being less satisfied than their counterparts. This study adds knowledge to the literature devoted to SQ, applying a fuzzy number approach to the under-investigated research area related to F&B consumption in airport areas. Further, it provides information useful to airport managers on the features of F&B services that are most important in shaping consumer satisfaction, based also on their age. Limitations of the study are also discussed and suggestions for future research are given.     

Passengers perceptions of airport branding strategies: The case of Tom Jobim International Airport – RIOgaleão,Brazil

This study examines the passengers perceptions of Tom Jobim International Airport – RIOgaleão branding strategies and its impact to their experiences in light of the airport branding elements proposed by the literature. To achieve these aims it was conducted a semi-structured interview with the airport's branding manager and a questionnaire with the passengers (n = 92). The findings showed that the airport's new management company has been employing tourist branding strategies using a mix of elements, but it is possible that these actions have had the main objective of raising the airport to international service standards, whereby the operation of terminals by large companies is a trend. It was also concluded that some of the airport branding elements (i.e. logos and slogans) are well developed and represent a higher impact on passenger experience, while others (i.e. retail pricing strategies) require further attention and new approaches in order to improve passenger experience in the terminal.     

A study on passengers' airport choice behavior using hybrid choice model: A case study of Seoul metropolitan area,South Korea

Improving explanatory power is significantly important to understand variables that affect attitudes and perceptions in the decision process. This paper estimates not only tangible attributes but also intangible perceptions and attitudes using a hybrid-choice model to study air passengers' flight choice behavior. The empirical study was conducted for the choice behavior of air passengers at Seoul Metropolitan Area, South Korea. The analysis uses a two-level Nested Logit model in order to examine which factors have more effect on passengers’ choice of airport and airline simultaneously by using airport and airline choice attributes. The study also estimated the parameters in the equations relating the latent variable by using Structural Equation Model (SEM). The results indicate that the models with latent variables have improved Goodness-of-Fit when compared to classical discrete choice models and effectively capture psychological factors that affect choice behavior of passengers.     

Market segmentation analysis for airport access mode choice modeling with mixed logit

Accessing airports can be considered as a crucial issue since passengers need not miss their flights. This issue makes the mode choice to access the airports important to study on and develop policies regarding it. Many studies show destination type as domestic or international affects the airport access mode choice, along with other factors. In this study, we investigate the effect of destination type of mode choice using mixed logit, using market segmentation approach. Market segmentation regarding destination type as domestic or international is a first in airport access mode choice modeling. Revealed-preference data was collected by face-to-face passenger surveys at Ataturk International Airport in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2015. We did market segmentation analysis for Multinomial Logit (MNL) and Mixed Logit (ML) models. When MNL and ML models were compared, it was observed that ML was superior to MNL. Further, results of market segmentation analysis revealed that using segmented models produced more accurate results than using the pooled model; both in MNL and ML. This finding was also supported by the value of time estimates; there were significant differences between domestic and international travel markets in terms of airport access mode choice. These results showed that different transportation policies may be introduced for domestic and international traveler segments, which also were explained.     

Business performance of airports: Non-aviation revenues and their determinants

Management of non-core commercial activities has become a key issue amongst the leverages for improving modern airport industry. Today airports have increased dramatically their dependence on non-aeronautical revenues, which on average account for half of all revenues with this share being highly heterogeneous across regions and airports. Using a dataset of German airports, this paper discusses the improvement of commercial revenues by exploring its determinants. Previous contributions assessed the impact of a selected set of variables non-aviation revenues. Such approach was mainly the effect of multicollinearity, as the majority of relevant variables are strongly correlated to the size of the structures. We address this issue by using ridge regression and partial least squares. Results suggest the potential conflict of non-aviation revenues per passenger and per square meter with the need to expand the number of passengers.     

Leisure versus business passengers: Similarities,differences, and implications

As low-cost air carriers increase their market share, the percentage of leisure to total passengers will increase. Data from an airport passenger survey are analyzed to document differences and similarities between leisure and business passengers. Surprisingly, the two groups of passengers are quite similar in terms of their reasons for choosing to fly from the airport surveyed, their parking requirements, and the number of bags they checked. These similarities indicate that airline and airport managers may not be obliged to make significant adjustments to their operations to account for the changing passenger mix.     

The role of schedule delays on passengers’ choice of access modes: A case study of Japan’s international hub airports

We empirically study passenger modal-choice behavior to access an international hub airport, by using stated preference (SP) data and by constructing a binomial logit model. We found that passenger modal choice is affected by the service level of the access modes: travel time, travel cost, waiting time, and delay cost. The results also indicate that if passengers choose access mode in advance they consider service frequency: departure timing from home, and the arrival timing at the airport. Moreover, our results indicate that travelers’ willingness to pay for saving time differs by time of a day. They are apt to pay more in the morning than in the afternoon. These outcomes must contribute to improve the access flight service from local to hub airports to handle the needs of passengers.     

Warehouse location problems for air freight forwarders: a challenge created by the airport relocation

The move of Hong Kong International Airport from the city centre to a suburban area in July 1998 provided sufficient capacity to meet the increasing demand of passenger and air-cargo flows in Hong Kong in the foreseeable future. However, the move has adverse side effects such as causing the readjustment of many existing systems and creating many imminent strategic problems. One of such problems is the warehouse location of freight forwarders: they have to decide whether they should locate their warehouses in the new airport, in current locations, or in new locations somewhere in the city. This paper delineates the results of a survey conducted in the summer of 1997 before the airport was relocated. The survey asked what decisions the freight forwarders had made and how they evaluated some potential warehouse locations. The paper also considers two mathematical models, which explain and predict, respectively, the location pattern of freight forwarder warehouses before and after the relocation of the airport.     

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.     

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.     

Implications of the ageing society and internationalisation for airport services: A perspective on passenger demand for personal space at airport terminals

“Per-passenger-space” has been used as one of the fundamental units of Level of Service (LOS) measurement to evaluate the capacity of airport terminals for passenger comfort and service satisfaction. This study addresses the questions of how air passengers perceive personal space as an airport service attribute, and how the territoriality of passengers is moderated by their age and cultural background. Participants were grouped depending on their age and nationality for a comparative study. The results from the Repertory Grid Technique (RGT) and open-ended questions supported the conclusion that passengers of different age and cultural backgrounds perceive personal space differently, and their service satisfaction would be partially affected by the availability of personal space within the airport terminal. These findings suggest a necessity for alternative LOS standards that are cost-effective and able to reflect changing age structure and cultural composition of air passengers.