Brazilian Airports Research Articles

Civil Aircraft Emissions Study and Pollutant Forecasting at a Brazilian Airport

Civil Aircraft Emissions Study and Pollutant Forecasting at a Brazilian Airport

Civil Aircraft Emissions Study and Pollutant Forecasting at a Brazilian Airport

In recent decades, the emissions of air transport industry pollutants and their impact on human health attract increased focus. The continued growth of air traffic and public awareness has transformed this field into one of the most important topics of commercial aviation. In the next 20 years, the estimated global demand for air transport will grow by an average of 5%. One of the direct consequences would be the increase in emissions, affecting significantly the communities around airports. The aim of this paper is to present an econometric model forecast of pollutant emissions generated by domestic flights in Salvador Airport. This model includes a derivative study of demand until the year 2020, considering the number of flights and emissions generated in the takeoff and landing cycles. Results present a predictive model for the number of pollutant emissions.

Efficiency analysis of a congested Brazilian airport applying slots optimization control: Congonhas Airport Case

The current slot allocation mechanism in Brazil, based on the International Air Transport Association (IATA) rules, and its supplementary local regulation The National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC), displays a few issues and limitations (e.g. slot misuse, allocation inefficiencies). Such issues are particularly present in the case of busy airports that works near their maximum capacity for major parts of the day. This inefficiency problem is generated because of the complexity of slot allocation added to the limited decision support available for the Brazilian system. This study focuses on the implementation of an optimal slot model, based on IATA regulations with local adaptations from ANAC at Congonhas Airport (CGH/SBSP). Final results include the reallocated slots examined within airport capacity limits and declared capacity for flights GOL 1389 and GOL 1666. This optimal solution represents an improvement in the slot allocation efficiency of 35,22% and 67,83% for flights GOL 1389 for GOL 1666 respectively. The main limitation is that the model focuses only on the availability of slots and their optimization. No consideration is given to the airport capabilities such as gate availability, baggage handling capacity and aircraft size. This leads to a less systemic analysis of the whole system.

A systematic airport runway maintenance and inspection policy based on a delay time modeling approach

This paper aims to present a systematic inspection policy for runway pavements based on the concepts of delay time modeling (DTM) in order to minimize the cost of maintenance by using the optimal inspection interval. Preventive airport runway maintenance is a factor in preventing aircraft being involved in incidents on the ground and is thus an important function in air transport that needs to be managed. Therefore, airport operators' management processes include a maintenance policy that targets airport asphalt pavements to guarantee trafficability and safety. Thus, in addition to presenting a model to minimize the cost of this policy using the DTM concept, this paper reports on a case study regarding how to apply the model at a Brazilian airport. The results obtained by using the model enabled the inspection costs to be justified as these ensure the cost of the maintenance policy adopted is minimized. This model can be used in other airports by parameterizing it with data on failure and wear and tear of the airport runway considered.

Land use policy in the vicinity of airports: Analysis and lessons learned from the Brazilian situation

Aircraft noise is one of the main environmental impacts associated with airports operation. Evidence suggests that sensitivity to aircraft noise is increasing. Besides the expected growth in air transportation, conflicts between airports and communities living in its surroundings are expected to increase also if not action is taken. Land-use regulation is one of the tools used to mitigate these impacts and allow the evolution of Civil Aviation minimizing adverse reactions from people living in airport surroundings. Traditionally, this regulation is done by defining land-use restrictions around airports, based on noise contours. However, these restrictions are often not enforced in practice because of cost-related issues and lack of coordination between the various stakeholders involved. Even when they are correctly implemented, they have not avoided noise-related conflicts in many cases, which indicates possible limitations of this approach. This article intends to suggest possible improvements to the process of land-use planning around airports. For that, the framework for land-use policy definitions around Brazilian airports will be used as a case study, from which are drawn recommendations and lessons-learned that may be generally applicable to other countries

Acceptance of biometric technology in airport check-in

Airport operators have been constantly searching for different ways to improve operational indicators, as well as to increase the quality of services offered to airport passengers. Therefore, changes are required in airport planning, either in its master plan or operational improvement. In this context, we highlight airport technology, which increasingly contrbutes for changes in the airport system. Besides, airport technology is being introduced at airports to provide passengers with faster, safer and more efficient processing in order to contribute to a better airport performance. However, existing knowledge on innovation to enhance passengers experience is limited. This study contributes to fill this gap by analyzing the possibility of airport passengers to use biometric technology. Different types of airport technology, which are being developed to offer passengers a faster, smother, safer and more efficient process, are in the spotlight. This paper discusses the likelihood to use biometric technology in check-in procedures, technology non-existent in Brazilian airports, through discrete choice model, specifically the binomial logit. Using a database of 760 passengers interviewed at three different Brazilian airports, the results showed that 82.94% of passengers would use this new technology.

EFFICIENCY ASSESSMENT OF CENTRAL AIRPORTS IN BRAZIL

> In this paper, we asses the efficiency of Brazilian airports, based on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Although previous studies applied DEA to Brazilian airports, herein we consider DEA´s homogeneity assumption, according to which units are assumed to operate in similar environments. As airport environment differs significantly throughout the country, we limit our analysis to six central airports. Still, our results are valuable nationwide, because these airports handle half of all flights departing from Brazil. As classic DEA is not recommended for small data sets, we use Multiple Criteria DEA, which has more discriminatory power. In our study, we found that only two airports in the State of Sao Paulo are efficient, whereas the other central airports are under-utilized, with an efficiency score of less than 50%. Results found in this study could serve as an important tool for public politics, as well as for private decisions in the airport sector. KEYWORDS. Airport efficiency; central airports; Brazilian air transport; Multiple Criteria Data Envelopment Analysis. MSC: 90B06

Regional change in the hierarchy of Brazilian airports 2007–2016

The global network analysis (GNA) is adapted to a domestic air network analysis (DANA), in order to identify structural changes of the air network of Brazil, with a regional perspective of the country. The networkability of airports involves the measurement of traditional indicators of the GNA, such as connectivity and local centrality. Furthermore, this paper proposes a regional analysis of the hierarchy of airports, by identifying economic factors related to the structural changes of the air network. In addition to a descriptive analysis of networkability and Gross Domestic Product (GDP), this study applies Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Malmquist methods in order to evaluate the efficiency change based on Networkability and GDP by municipality and region. The reached results show that, although airports of the Southeast region are evidently more important in terms of air flows and amount of connections, there is a slight decentralization of air flows and connection to the Midwest and Northeast regions of the country, proven by the increasing networkability of airports and regional economic changes, leading to hierarchical position change of airports in these regions and a structural change of the air network.

The Rio De Janeiro international airport privatization: a problem of overbidding?

We analyze the case of the Rio de Janeiro International Airport concession, which suffered severe financial difficulties after it posted the highest auction bid premium of the 2011–2013 Brazilian government airport privatization program. Given that this airport had significant potential for future expansion, we investigate whether this could have justified the high bid, or whether the value of this flexibility was overestimated. The concession is analyzed using the real options approach because these expansion opportunities have option-like characteristics. The results suggest that these options may have been overpriced, because they are insufficient to justify the bid premium offered.

The management of environmental services in Brazilian public airports: The challenges in searching for efficiency

This study discusses the implementation of the Environmental Services Management System (ESMS) in the Brazilian Airport Infrastructure Company, otherwise known as Infraero. Infraero is a state company responsible for 54 public airports in Brazil; in 2017, it conducted more than 1.5 million operations (landings and takeoffs), and transported 108 million passengers, corresponding to 66% of the transportations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The ESMS adopted the concept of management by results, an innovation in Brazilian public companies. The basic premises are the definition of the service flow, the standardization of technical documents, rigorous deadline control and continuous improvement. The system was implemented in April 2017, and evaluated until December of the same year. Throughout the assessment period, a total of 764 environmental demands were registered, with a mean service rate of 3.7 for each workday, presenting a high index for the public sector. Overall, the adoption of the system resulted in an efficiency rate of 95% in the assessed period; moreover, the average monthly delay index was low, ranging from 5.1% in the first month to 0.9% in the last. These results demonstrate that the ESMS is an important tool in improving the efficiency of environmental services in public companies, proven by the high efficiency achieved by Infraero and the high potential for adapting the system to different sectors.

Eficiência dos terminais aeroportuários brasileiros considerando a percepção de satisfação do passageiro

A satisfação do passageiro em aeroportos é tema de grande importância para a comunidade científica e para o operador, dado que o usuário se trata de um importante cliente ao aeroporto. Observa-se, na literatura nacional e internacional, uma tendência em analisar a satisfação do usuário. Porém, é detectada uma lacuna no que diz respeito aos estudos que avaliam a eficiência aeroportuária com inserções de variáveis de percepção da satisfação do passageiro. Nesse contexto, o objetivo do artigo é avaliar a eficiência de 15 relevantes aeroportos brasileiros por meio do método da Análise Envoltória de Dados. O modelo permite analisar diferentes variáveis, sendo a satisfação dos usuários uma dessas variáveis (output). Mediante o modelo DEA-BCC, nota-se que 46,66% dos aeroportos avaliados apresentaram eficiência máxima relativa no ano de 2016, para os requisitos de análise.

ILS CAT III NO BRASIL: CUSTO-BENEFÍCIO DE INSTALAÇÃO NO BRASIL

This research talks about the need of a precision landing system also known in Brazil as ILS CAT III. It will approach if what motivates such implementation is the political or the economic bias and what is the relationship with the awards to the related private companies. In order to check the true need of the device to the country, it's necessary to acknowledge some barriers that we face when implementing this kind of device. The goals of this study are to present the concept and the history of this system, since its creation to the precision categories. Besides that, it will be shown comparative data from the airports before and after the implementation of the ILS, observing the results of such measure. The study also has as a goal to present the spending and the methods used for the homologation, certification and maintenance of the system by the regulatory bodies. The methodology is based in literature review structured in books, scientific articles, reports, Brazilian resolutions and regulations. It's expected that with this research we can prove or not the true need of the ILS CAT III to Brazil towards the predominant weather conditions in the domestic airfields, the current political and economic scenario and the questions about concession and privatization of Brazilian airports. In view of the following research, it was found that ILS CAT III in Brazil doesn’t have a cost-benefit of real viability, both for national airlines and for airports that would have to implement this system, given that a few hours throughout the year requires this type of operation, being more viable to them the expense with passengers before the resolution 141 of the ANAC.

Forecasting passenger movement for Brazilian airports network based on the segregation of primary and secondary demand applied to Brazilian civil aviation policies planning

The paper describes a model developed in the Brazilian National Secretariat of Civil Aviation for predicting the movement of passengers by commercial flights at airports, consolidating two types of demand, a primary, captive demand, that exclusively utilizes the airport of the respective Airport Zone (ZA), as long as it supplies flights. To that primary demand, we add a secondary demand, which is residual and more volatile, depending on the distance from the airport with commercial flights. Four examples are presented showing the results of the model in relation to the competition between airports and catchment areas.

A Real Options Model for Evaluating Investments in the Guarulhos Airport Concession Program

The Brazilian government began, in 2012, the program of concessions of the administration of Brazilian airports in order to improve customer service through private capital. One of the main subjects of this concession plan was the airport of Guarulhos, in the state of São Paulo (Brazil), which is the largest airport in the country, responsible on average for over 20,000 flights and transporting approximately 4 million passengers per month. Concessions of this scale demand large investments, which in turn can result in greater uncertainties regarding future cash flows. In certain cases, the NPV (Net Present Value) of these investments may become negative, which does not necessarily mean that the undertaking is unfeasible, or that it should not be encouraged. Changes in the overall economic scenario can subsequently lead to updated results in the expected cash flow, making the investment viable. One of the ways to evaluate a project under an uncertain scenario is to use the Real Options model as a strategic complement to cash flow analysis. This article presents an application to calculate the value of the expansion option for the Guarulhos international airport. For the models of uncertainty related to passenger load and flight volume, the value of the expansion option using the Black-Scholes-Merton model is calculated. The article concludes with the recommendation for the expansion to be carried out on a 4-year horizon, which in this period results in a positive strategic NPV, in addition to optimizing the utilization of the airport’s terminal capacity.

Human Factors and Errors in Security Aviation: An Ergonomic Perspective

In a previous study we have identified the incidence of human factors and errors in the security screening process, concerning the Brazilian civil aviation. This finding led to the analysis of labor activity in the security checkpoint from an ergonomic perspective. The objective of this study was to evaluate the various labor conditions in the security checkpoints of Brazilian airports, in order to promote safer and higher performance of the AVSEC professionals, as well as the security equipment. For this purpose, we analyzed 14 of 60 questions of a self-observation questionnaire based on the theory of Generic Error–Modelling System (GEMS) and the four themes about human factors recommended by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The questionnaire was responded to by 602 AVSEC professionals who worked in the security checkpoints of 18 Brazilian airports. Our analysis focused on the preponderant indexes of each question, taking into account the sequential arrangement in which the questions were displaced in the questionnaire and the classification of human factors and errors.

Airports economic efficient frontier

Studies about airport operational efficiency models generally disregard the correlation between operational efficiencies and economic drivers. The goal of this study is, firstly, to isolate and detail the key economic drivers and then find their efficient frontier. The methodology employed was Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) as a non-parametric and linear programming model. It provides relative measures of efficiency using multiple inputs and outputs for a given Decision-Making Unit (DMU) without requiring a prior production function. The number of variables in this study was limited in function of the DMUs analyzed, which consisted of the following Brazilian airports: Congonhas Airport (CGH), Guarulhos International Airport (GRU) and Viracopos International Airport (VCP). Two of the airports, GRU and VCP, were found to be efficient considering this study’s combination of very limited variables, meaning that theses airports, from this isolated standpoint, are maximizing their commercial, passenger parking and marketing revenues, given their terminal area and the number of yearly passengers.

Impacto das Competências de Equipes sobre o Desempenho

Resumo As competências para o trabalho têm sido tradicionalmente compreendidas como atributos de indivíduos; entretanto, estudos mais recentes tornam pertinente defender a sua ocorrência como atributos coletivos. O objetivo deste estudo foi demonstrar que competências individuais podem transformar-se em competências coletivas e, nesse nível, predizer o desempenho da equipe. A testagem empírica foi realizada em 51 aeródromos brasileiros, totalizando 106 equipes (entre 3 e 32 integrantes). Instrumentos respondidos pelos membros focaram nas competências enquanto os respondidos pelos lideres indagaram sobre o desempenho das equipes. Os resultados revelaram que as competências coletivas explicam aproximadamente 20% do desempenho das equipes. Disso depreende-se que as competências podem se manifestar como atributos coletivos que predizem resultados de equipes de trabalho.

Assessing the risks: An analysis of wildlife-strike data at the three busiest Brazilian airports (2011-2016)

Brazil is the largest country in Latin America and has a considerable amount of air traffic volume domestically and internationally. Wildlife strikes are an increasing safety and economic concern for aviation operations in Brazil. The Brazilian Aeronautical Accidents Investigation and Prevention Center (CENIPA) has published annual reports summarizing the results of analyses of the data in a national level since 2009. The goal of this study was to supplement the CENIPA’s annual reports with information derived from the analysis of wildlife strikes to aviation, during 2011-2016, from the three busiest international commercial airports in Brazil: Guarulhos, Brasília, and Galeão. A set of descriptive analysis was conducted to present the overall characteristics of wildlife strikes at and around those three airports. In addition, statistical comparison of wildlife strikes with different factors was conducted. Analysis of these data indicated an increasing trend of wildlife strikes from 2011 to 2016. Results also indicated that the majority of the damaging strikes occurred during the departure phases of flight at the studied airports. The distributions of wildlife-strikes per phase of flight, per quarter of the year, per type of operator, and per period of the day are presented in this paper. Results indicated that, during the period studied, most strikes in Guarulhos occurred during the first, and in Brasília and Galeão during the second quarter of the year, respectively. Findings suggested that the risk of a damaging strike is higher at dawn in Guarulhos and Galeão, and during the day in Brasília. Findings of this study could facilitate the integration of Safety Management Systems (SMS) and wildlife hazard management programs (WHMP) by airport operators and air carriers. Additionally, current findings may inform the development of national policies and standards in Brazil as well as the future integrated research and management efforts to mitigate wildlife strikes.

Modelo para vida útil restante de ativos em terminais aeroportuários

Estudos destacam a importância da previsão da vida útil de ativos para redução de custos e aumento de produtividade nas companhias, em especial, a vida útil restante. No entanto, esta previsão é muito sensível ao método utilizado e à quantidade de dados disponível para a análise. Apesar de existirem diversos modelos para vida útil restante de ativos, nenhum deles foi desenvolvido considerando especificamente o ambiente aeroportuário, que apresenta problemas na gestão de seus ativos. O objetivo principal deste trabalho é propor um modelo para estimativa de vida útil restante de ativos em aeroportos, além da sua aplicação em um aeroporto brasileiro na forma de estudo de caso. O trabalho concluiu que modelo conseguiu identificar ativos com um amplo intervalo de vida útil restante, apoiando-se em informações subjetivas e poucos dados históricos. Como principal contribuição, cita-se o estudo das variáveis presentes em ambientes aeroportuários, o que permitiu a proposição de um modelo adequado para lidar com as especificidades do setor.

Security screening process of passengers in Brazilian airports: Bivariate analysis of human errors and factors

The airport security processes, specifically those applied during passenger checkpoint security, suffer from a lack of studies on the identification, quantification, causes and impact of human error. This paper aims to examine the associations between various factors and human errors that can affect the operational environment of checkpoint security. In the bi-dimensional analysis, it was verified that there was a considerable association between some variables, which enables the authors to predict certain factors and human errors.