Handling people in long-haul air transportation.

Abstract

Airport and airline facility planners face a very difficult task. Air passenger transportation could easily triple in the next ten years. This means that passenger handling facilities will have to be greatly expanded and improved within the near future. Unfortunately no single solution can resolve this growth problem, because of the varying needs of different airlines and airports throughout the world. However, airplane manufacturers can assist facility planners by designing airplanes that not only transport large numbers of passengers but that also contribute to increased efficiency in passenger handling. This paper indicates how The Boeing Company is designing the Model 747 to optimize passenger handling efficiency over a broad range of airport facilities. For the purpose of this paper, a system analysis approach is employed to define the total flow of passenger activities from the origination to the destination point. Passenger activities are isolated and studied to find how airplane design can improve their efficiency. This system analysis approach is used only for rhetorical purposes; it is not the actual design approach used. 499