Abstract
The airport terminal is a complex building composed of many functional subsystems dimensioned to host passenger traffic, considering an appropriate level of service (LoS). The most widely known method to assess the LoS and design the terminal areas is the Airport Development Reference Manual by the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Based on this, a calculation tool in Microsoft Excel® was implemented to assess the capacity and dimension of the facilities for each functional subsystem of the terminal. The tool, composed of nine correlated spreadsheets, is a useful model to design new structures, evaluate the LoS currently offered, plan interventions, and face the new rules of passenger distancing due to the COVID-19 emergency. An international airport terminal with 20 million/year including Schengen and extra-Schengen passengers was studied. The LoS of the terminal subsystems was assessed and the areas needed for each subsystem were calculated. In the analyzed case study, most subsystems (departure hall, check-in, boarding gates, baggage claim, and arrival halls) were over-designed, according to the definition of the IATA LoS. This means that available spaces for queues and holding are sufficiently large to easily face the new rules of social distancing for passengers due to the recent COVID-19 emergency.
Highlights
The airport is a complex infrastructure composed of many functional subsystems that should satisfy the expected traffic demand over time by means of an appropriate airport master planning process
A model of evaluating airport terminal capacity was developed in Microsoft Excel® based on the International Air Transport Association (IATA) recommendations contained in the Airport Development Reference Manual, tenth edition
The calculation tool provides a measure of the areas and the number of facilities for each functional subsystem of an airport terminal for a given volume of traffic
Summary
The airport is a complex infrastructure composed of many functional subsystems that should satisfy the expected traffic demand over time by means of an appropriate airport master planning process. Studying airport capacity is commonly used to evaluate the suitability of each airport system to the traffic demand. The study of airport capacity is a useful tool to plan maintenance works or to assess the level of service of functional subsystems both airside and landside. The strategies adopted to increase airport capacity or manage the traffic demand for a given service level affect environmental sustainability: air transport accounts around 10% of all transport energy consumption in the EU and is responsible for approximately 15% of all CO2 emissions [2]. The increased emissions could be faced by suitable airport organization [3]. Any modification of airport capacity affects and depends on the environmental policy of airport operators and the social and transport organization [4]
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