Amsterdam Airport Research Articles

Transforming waste management methods: a Dutch Airport’s journey toward a circular economy through baseline measurements and strategic priority setting

Airports, the essential hubs of global travel, have to cater for the increasing demands for air travel, with growing passenger numbers and the associated growth in resource consumption. While the aviation sector prioritizes reducing environmental impact in the air, substantial waste is generated at airports. This necessitates a critical examination of waste management practices, especially since a Circular Economy (CE) approach is gaining momentum within the aviation sector. This article introduces the Baseline Circular Airports Method (BCAM), a methodology developed and rigorously tested at Schiphol Amsterdam airport. BCAM systematically analyzes resource streams, considering composition and relevant stakeholders, treatment processes, and environmental impact. By doing so, it establishes strategic prioritization of resource streams for airports to perform focused and effective interventions. BCAM analysis reveals that the highest impact of operational resource streams are Residual, Plastic, Swill, Paper, and International Catering Waste (CAT1), and that corresponding waste management efficiencies can be determined. These outcomes serve as a baseline for ongoing monitoring, offering airports a starting point for strategic planning and assessing progress towards sustainable waste management and CE transitions.

Technical feasibility study for a solar energy system at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AAS)

This work arises within the framework of the introduction of renewable energies at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AAS) and the focus is on the technical feasibility of a solar energy system (SES) on ground level. The flight safety must always be guaranteed if solar panels are implemented on AAS. The radiation reflection of solar panels according to the optical effect towards the pilot of an airplane and the line of sight of the Air traffic tower has been studied. Also the constraints for installing an “object” at the Airport have to be taken into account. This should lead to an overall impression of the potential of solar panels that can be orientated on ground level. A complete model of a solar energy system is designed: tilt angle, type of solar panels, equipment (DC/AC inverter), a cable system as well as the way the design can be implemented in the electricity infrastructure of AAS. Power Quality (PQ) and the effects of implementing a SES will be discussed: disturbances have to be minimized.

How can airports prepare for future public health disruptions? Experiences and lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic from a systemic perspective based on expert interviews

The COVID-19 pandemic proved to be an existential public health and economic crisis for the airport system. An interview study was conducted using Amsterdam Airport Schiphol as a use case to prepare for future public health disruptions. The study aimed to uncover key experiences and lessons learned by an airport system during the COVID-19 pandemic by interviewing 16 experts from airport operators, airlines, public health agencies, security services, and the government. After thematic analysis, four themes emerged. The first theme addressed the limited readiness of the airport system; the COVID-19 pandemic seemed unimaginable regardless of prior experiences with infectious diseases or weak signals. The second theme depicts an airport system running behind the facts, one that had difficulties implementing operational interventions and had to deal with extensive reorganisations. The third theme illustrated the complex relational dynamics within the airport system, such as the hesitancy of public health stakeholders towards aviation stakeholders and the government utilising a top-down approach. Finally, theme four provides lessons learned for the future whereby actively fostering a systemic approach, sensemaking capabilities, and informal relations are recommended. Current constructions like Crisis Management Teams and the Airport Operations Centre support these learnings. Further reflection and operationalisation of the study's findings are critical to proactively supporting the airport system's transition from a potential pandemic liability to a strategic asset in mitigating public health disruptions.

Experiences from the international frontlines: An exploration of the perceptions of airport employees during the COVID-19 pandemic

The aviation industry is one of the sectors that has been heavily impacted by the pandemic. While the major body of literature has focused on passenger experience and behaviour, this study focuses on airport employees instead—their experiences, perceptions, and preferences following the emergence of COVID-19. More than 1000 participants from 4 major airports—Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Singapore Changi Airport, Taipei Taoyuan Airport, and Zurich Airport—representing over 10 different occupations, have provided a variety of sentiments about the airport as an employment ecosystem in the wake of COVID-19. Quantitatively and qualitatively surveying four different airports enabled a cross-border analysis of the results to identify interesting geographic contrasts, as well as global themes, among the responses. Regional differences regarding, the feeling of preparedness, confidence in measures, and optimism are presented. A significant difference in confidence in non-pharmaceutical measures between employees from Asian and European airports is shown. Wants and needs such as better physical/IT workplace infrastructure and more flexibility regarding job scope and hours are pointed out. The results of this research provide insights for future airport employee experience research by outlining areas to study in greater detail. Furthermore, practical implications for airport stakeholders and companies arising from the challenges experienced by the workforce are laid out to provide guidance to prepare for similar circumstances in the future and navigate the aftermath of and recovery from the pandemic.

Design for Meaningful Impact in the Airport Context

The airport environment is a complex and interconnected ecosystem with many stakeholders, both local and global. Schiphol Amsterdam Airport’s Innovation Hub aims to change aviation’s status quo. Our way-of-working is built upon Design Thinking. In this article, we introduce two project cases that have successfully gone from vision and ideation through to implementation: ‘Timeslots for Security’ and ‘CoBro’.

Similar Sensitivity of SARS-CoV-2 Detection in Oropharyngeal/Nasopharyngeal and Saliva Samples on the Hologic Panther Platform.

Oropharyngeal (OP) and nasopharyngeal (NP) sampling has historically been considered the reference specimen type used for respiratory virus detection. Saliva could be a less invasive alternative for SARS-CoV-2 detection, but limited evidence is available. The technical and clinical performance of saliva was compared to OP/NP on the Hologic Panther platform with two Aptima assays, the End-Point Transcription-Mediated Amplification assay (EP-TMA) and Real-Time Transcription-Mediated Amplification assay (RT-TMA). The samples were collected at the Public Health Service Testing Site XL location in Schiphol Amsterdam Airport. At the site, the Regional Public Health Laboratory Kennemerland (RPHLK) has a fully equipped laboratory facility. A total of 374 samples (187 OP/NP swabs and 187 saliva samples) were collected from 187 unique patients. The Real-Time Transcription-Mediated Amplification assay (RT-TMA) resulted in comparable sensitivities for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in both the OP/NP swabs (88.3%; 113/128) and saliva samples (87.5%; 112/128). The End-Point Transcription-Mediated Amplification assay (EP-TMA) analyses showed a similar sensitivity (86.7%; 111/128) in the OP/NP swabs but a lower sensitivity in the saliva samples (80.5%; 103/128). Within the discordant analyses, we found no associations in the symptoms, earlier SARS-CoV-2 infections and eating, smoking, drinking and tooth brushing habits within one hour before testing. The Hologic Panther platform Real-Time Transcription-Mediated Amplification assay (RT-TMA) yields a sensitivity for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in saliva that is comparable to the OP/NP swabs derived from participants presenting themselves at a public health testing facility with minimal or mild symptoms.

Ignorance-led port policing? The limits of information sharing–based policing in the North Sea Canal Area and Port of Amsterdam and in the Port of Moerdijk

Abstract Whereas the Dutch government considers the Port of Rotterdam and Amsterdam Airport as crucial drug transport hubs for organized crime groups, there is scarce governance focus on the increasing shift of these groups to small, medium-sized, and (still) relatively anonymous Dutch ports, like the North Sea Canal Area (NSCA) and the Port of Moerdijk (PoM). They can be considered criminal diversion ports where port policing parties relies strongly on information sharing to establish intelligence-led port policing. What has remained un(der)studied are not only these criminal diversion ports, but also, and more specifically how and why (frontline) port policing staff (do not) share information and intelligence (position) with one another other. What are their motivations to withhold or share information? That is the key research question answered in this contribution by comparing two recent studies, one on the NSCA (Eski, Y., Boelens, M., Mesic, A., and Boutellier, H. (2021). Van Verhalen naar Verbalen: Een verkennende studie naar de aanpak van ondermijnende drugscriminaliteit in het Noordzeekanaalgebied en de haven van Amsterdam (NZKG). The Hague: Sdu.) and the other on the PoM (Fiddelers, V. [2021]. Intel aan het roer. Een studie naar informatiedeling binnen de politie ten behoeve van de aanpak ondermijnende criminaliteit in de haven van Moerdijk. Amsterdam: VU University.). By exploring comparatively the reasons the studies’ participants have, or think others have, for (withholding) information, this article considers to which extent Dutch small, medium-sized criminal diversion ports accommodate ignorance-led port policing (Reiner in Shepherd, J., Pease, K., Reiner, R., Squires, P., and Westmarland, L. (2010). ‘Debating Policing Research: A Research Council for Crime and Justice? Jonathan Shepherd and Ken Pease Call for Medical Research Standards to be Replicated in Policing Studies. Robert Reiner, Peter Squires, and Louise Westmarland respond.’ Criminal Justice Matters 80(1): 2–5.).

Trade-offs in the landside operations of air cargo hubs: Horizontal cooperation and shipment consolidation policies considering capacitated nodes

Landside operations in air cargo terminals consist of many freight forwarders (FFWs) delivering and picking up cargo at the capacity-constrained loading docks at the airport's ground handlers' (GHs) facilities. To improve the operations of the terminal and take advantage of their geographical proximity a small set of FFWs can build a coalition to consolidate stochastically-arriving shipments and share truck fleet capacity while other FFWs continue bringing cargo to the terminal in a non-cooperative manner. Results from a detailed discrete-event simulation model of the cargo landside operations in Amsterdam Aiport showed that all operational policies had trade-offs in terms of the average shipment cycle time of coalition FFWs, the average shipment cycle time of non-coalition FFWs, and the total distance traveled by the coalition fleet, suggesting that horizontal cooperation in this context was not always beneficial, contrary to what previous studies on horizontal cooperation have found. Since dock capacity constitutes a significant constraint on operations in air cargo hubs, this paper also investigates the effect of dock capacity utilization and horizontal cooperation on the performance of consolidation policies implemented by the coalition. Thus, we built a general model of the air cargo terminal to analyze the effects caused by dock capacity utilization without the added complexity of landside operations at Amsterdam Airport to investigate whether the results hold for more general scenarios. Results from the general simulation model suggest that, in scenarios where dock and truck capacity become serious constraints, the average shipment cycle times of non-coalition FFWs are reduced at the expense of an increase in the cycle times of FFWs who constitute the coalition. A good balance among all the performance measures considered in this study is reached by following a policy that takes advantage of consolidating shipments based on individual visits to GH.

Comparative assessment of measured and modelled aircraft noise around Amsterdam Airport Schiphol

The impressive growth of the aviation industry and the number of flights entail several environmental repercussions, such as increased aircraft noise emissions. With the worrying number of complaints from the communities around airports comes also the distrust in numerical models used for aircraft noise prediction. In this study, we compare the ‘Dutch aircraft noise model’ predictions to measured values from the NOise MOnitoring System (NOMOS) around Amsterdam Airport Schiphol between 2012 and 2018. While the model underestimates aircraft noise in 2012, the model prediction improved throughout the years. We observe a decreasing trend of measured aircraft-related L d e n values of 0.6 dB(A)/year (a total of 3.6 dB(A) over the investigation period), although the total number of flight movements increased during the observation time. We propose that a change in fleet mix, as well as the implementation of Noise Abatement Procedures at Schiphol Airport, fuelled this trend.

Challenges and opportunities to improve customer experience for existing airport assets: Case study of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol T1 refurbishment

Airports are faced with changing requirements for their existing airport assets and are under significant budget, sustainability and customer expectation pressures. This paper shares insights from Schiphol Amsterdam Airport and its consultant Benthem Crouwel NACO (BCN/NACO) on the redevelopment of Terminal 1 as a case study on meeting changing requirements in the aviation sector by smart use of existing infrastructure, retaining buy in from the wider airport organisation and stakeholders and meeting the new standards in sustainability and customer experience.

Alterations to the urinary metabolome following semi-controlled short exposures to ultrafine particles at a major airport

BackgroundInflammation, oxidative stress and reduced cardiopulmonary function following exposure to ultrafine particles (UFP) from airports has been reported but the biological pathways underlying these toxicological endpoints remain to be explored. Urinary metabolomics offers a robust method by which changes in cellular pathway activity can be characterised following environmental exposures.ObjectiveWe assessed the impact of short-term exposures to UFP from different sources at a major airport on the human urinary metabolome.Methods21 healthy, non-smoking volunteers (aged 19–27 years) were repeatedly (2–5 visits) exposed for 5h to ambient air at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, while performing intermittent, moderate exercise. Pre- to-post exposure changes in urinary metabolite concentrations were assessed via 1H NMR spectroscopy and related to total and source-specific particle number concentrations (PNC) using linear mixed effects models.ResultsTotal PNC at the exposure site was on average, 53,500 particles/cm3 (range 10,500–173,200) and associated with significant reductions in urinary taurine (−0.262 AU, 95% CI: −0.507 to −0.020) and dimethylamine concentrations (−0.021 AU, 95% CI: −0.040 to −0.067). Aviation UFP exposure accounted for these changes, with the reductions in taurine and dimethylamine associating with UFP produced during both aircraft landing and take-off. Significant reductions in pyroglutamate concentration were also associated with aviation UFP specifically, (−0.005 AU, 95% CI: −0.010 – <0.000) again, with contributions from both landing and take-off UFP exposure. While non-aviation UFPs induced small changes to the urinary metabolome, their effects did not significantly impact the overall response to airport UFP exposure.DiscussionFollowing short-term exposures at a major airport, aviation-related UFP caused the greatest changes to the urinary metabolome. These were consistent with a heightened antioxidant response and altered nitric oxide synthesis. Although some of these responses could be adaptive, they appeared after short-term exposures in healthy adults. Further study is required to determine whether long-term exposures induce injurious effects.

Noise assessment of taxibotted versus conventional taxiing operations using a phased microphone array

In sustainable aviation the focus is mostly applied to the greenhouse gas emissions during flight. However airports have an increasing interest in reducing emissions during ground operations such as taxiing for example to improve the local air quality. Amsterdam Airport Schiphol started a pilot for sustainable taxiing with a pilot-controlled hybrid-electric aircraft towing vehicle called TaxiBot in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic created an opportunity for extensive operational testing on a near-empty airport. Due to the low background noise levels in this situation, also a noise assessment of taxiing with the TaxiBot versus conventional two-engine taxiing was performed. This assessment can be used to evaluate the noise levels to which ground workers or neighbouring communities are exposed due to TaxiBot operations. For the noise measurements a phased microphone array was used, which allowed not only for a noise level and directionality assessment, but also for noise source identification. This paper compares the noise emissions and noise sources between a taxibotted and conventional taxiing operation. The results show that a taxibotted taxiing operation produces significantly lower noise levels. Additionally, acoustic imaging shows that the TaxiBot engine is the main noise source for a taxibotted pass-by manoeuvre.

A Practical Approach to Monitor Capacity under the CDM Approach

The operations of take-off and landing at hub airports are often subject to a wide variety of delays; the effects of these delays impact not only the related stakeholders, such as aircraft operators, air-traffic control unity and ground handlers but as part of the European network, delays are propagated through the network. As a result, Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM) is being employed as a methodology for increasing the efficiency of Air Traffic Management (ATM), through the involvement of partners within the airports. Under CDM, there are some strategic common objectives regardless the airport or the partner specific interest to improve operational efficiency, predictability and punctuality to the ATM network and airport stakeholders. Monitoring and controlling some strategic areas such as, Efficiency, Capacity, Safety and Environment is needed to achieve the benefits. Therefore, the present work aims to provide a framework to monitor the accuracy of capacity in the three main flight phases. It aims to provide a comprehensible and practical approach to monitoring capacity by identifying and proposing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) based on the A-CDM Milestone Approach to optimise the use of available capacity. To illustrate our approach, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is used as case study as a full A-CDM airport.

A multilevel optimization approach to route design and flight allocation taking aircraft sequence and separation constraints into account

This paper presents the development of a multilevel optimization framework for the design and selection of departure routes, and the distribution of aircraft movements among these routes, while taking the sequence and separation requirements for aircraft on runways and along selected routes into account. The main aim of the framework is to minimize aircraft noise impact on communities around an airport, and the associated fuel consumption. The proposed framework features two consecutive steps. In the first step, for each given Standard Instrument Departure (SID), multi-objective trajectory optimization is utilized to generate a comprehensive set of possible alternative routes. The obtained set is subsequently used as input for the optimization problem in the second step. In this step, the selection of routes for each SID and the distribution of aircraft movements among these routes are optimized simultaneously. To ensure the feasibility of optimized solutions for an entire operational day, the sequence and separation requirements for aircraft on runways and along selected routes are included in this second phase. In order to address these issues, three novel techniques are developed and added to a previously developed multilevel optimization framework, viz., a runway assignment model, a conflict detection algorithm, and a rerouting technique. The proposed framework is applied to a realistic case study at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in the Netherlands, in which 599 departure flights and 13 different SIDs are considered. The optimization results show that the proposed model can offer conflict-free solutions, one of which can lead to a reduction in the number of people annoyed of up to 21%, and a reduction in fuel consumption of 8% relative to the reference case solution.

An optimization framework for route design and allocation of aircraft to multiple departure routes

In this article, we present the development of a two-step optimization framework to deal with the design and selection of aircraft departure routes and the allocation of flights among these routes. The aim of the framework is to minimize cumulative noise annoyance and fuel burn. In the first step of the framework, multi-objective trajectory optimization is used to compute and store a set of routes that will serve as inputs in the second step. In the second step, the selection of routes from the sets of pre-computed optimal routes and the optimal allocation of flights to these routes are conducted simultaneously. To validate the proposed framework, we also conduct an analysis involving an integrated (one-step) approach, in which both trajectory optimization and route allocation are formulated as a single optimization problem. A comparison of both approaches is then performed, and their advantages and disadvantages are identified. The performance and capabilities of the present framework are demonstrated using a case study at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in The Netherlands. The numerical results show that the proposed framework can generate solutions which can achieve a reduction in the number of people annoyed of up to 31% and a reduction in fuel consumption of 7.3% relative to the reference case solution.

Substitution from Air to High-Speed Rail: The Case of Amsterdam Airport

In this paper we present the results of a study that aims to establish the potential for high-speed train travel as a substitute for short distance air travel at Amsterdam Airport. We investigated the 13 most important destinations that offer direct flights to and from Amsterdam Airport. Almost 40% of the air passengers travelling to/from these destinations are transfer passengers. Empirical evidence reveals that high-speed trains dominate the market for journeys of 2 hours or less, such as between Paris and Brussels. However, trains claim only a tiny market share of journeys longer than 5 to 6 hours; air travel dominates that market segment. Using these findings, we developed a model to estimate the substitution of air travel with high-speed train travel. The explanatory variables in this model are travel time, daily departure options, fares, and the inconvenience associated with transferring at airports. In a “minimum” scenario, we predict that in 2030 high-speed trains could replace approximately 1.9 million air journeys. This calculation is based on feasible reductions of train travel times and increased train frequencies for part of the rail network. In this scenario, Amsterdam–London accounts for more than three-quarters of the predicted substitution. In a “maximum” scenario, substitution could increase up to 3.7 million air journeys per year, provided that inconveniences for passengers when transferring at airports from plane to train are resolved and train ticket fares are reduced by 20%. These two scenarios imply a reduction of 2.5 to 5% of all flights to/from Amsterdam Airport in 2030.

Integrated design and allocation of optimal aircraft departure routes

This paper presents a new multi-objective optimization formulation for the design and allocation of optimal aircraft departure routes. In the considered problem – besides two conventional objectives based on cumulative noise criteria and fuel burn – a new objective considering the flight frequency is introduced. Moreover, to take advantage of the combination of designing new routes and allocating flights to these routes, two different routes are considered simultaneously, and the distribution of flights over these two routes is addressed in parallel. Then, a new version of the so-called MOEA/D optimization algorithm is developed to solve the formulated optimization problem. Two different case studies, one at Rotterdam The Hague Airport and one at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in The Netherlands, are carried out to evaluate the reliability and applicability of the proposed approach. The obtained results reveal that the proposed approach can provide solutions which can balance more effectively the concerned metrics such as the number of annoyed people, fuel burn, number of people exposed to certain noise levels, and number of aircraft movements which people are subjected to.

Fast Charging for E-Buses

A recent installation at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is the world’s largest opportunity charging electric bus scheme, showcasing the latest in fast-charging expertise

Robust flight-to-gate assignment using flight presence probabilities

ABSTRACTIn this paper we present a novel method to improve the robustness of solutions to the Flight-to-Gate Assignment Problem (FGAP), with the aim to reduce the need for gate re-planning due to unpredicted flight schedule disturbances in the daily operations at an airport. We propose an approach in which the deterministic gate constraints are replaced by stochastic gate constraints that incorporate the inherent stochastic flight delays in such a way so as to ensure that the expected gate conflict probability of two flights assigned to the same gate at the same time does not exceed a user-specified value. The novel approach is integrated into an existing multiple time slot FGAP model that relies on a binary integer programming formulation and is tested using real-life data pertaining to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. The results confirm that the proposed approach holds out great promise to improve the robustness of the FGAP solutions.

Airport mobile marketing as a channel to promote cross-selling

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze the airport mobile marketing and what elements have had a positive or negative influence in cross-selling via an airport app. Design/methodology: For this analysis, a survey was conducted to users that use the Schiphol Amsterdam Airport app. A total of 103 questionnaires were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings: This study found that security/control factor supplied by the mobile marketing tool to passengers at the airport, it has been demonstrated that it favours an increase in cross-selling. in addition, if an airport is perceived to have a good brand image, it will have a positive effect in cross-selling. Originality/value: This paper is the first research that examines the impact of mobile marketing in airports. Smelling multiple products and services to the same client before, during, and post consumption is a marketing technique that intends to (1) satisfy a client’s need and (2) increase a company’s profit by using cross-selling and other complementary services. Airline companies are experts in carrying out this activity, and airports have found that mobile applications are the perfect tool to increase their commercial profits. Offering complementary products and services is a very lucrative business, and a mobile device or smartphone are -- and will become -- the ideal medium to meet users’ demands as well as to improve the passenger experience. Keywords: mobile marketing, cross-selling, information, security-control, image-perception, satisfaction, WOM