Medium-sized Airports Research Articles

The Baggage Belt Assignment Problem

We consider the problem of assigning flights to baggage belts in the baggage reclaim area of an airport. The problem is originated by a real-life application in Copenhagen airport. The objective is to construct a robust schedule taking passenger and airline preferences into account. We consider a number of business and fairness constraints, avoiding congestion, and ensuring a good passenger flow. Robustness of the solutions is achieved by matching the delivery time with the expected arrival time of passengers, and by adding sufficient buffer time between two flights scheduled on the same belt. We denote this problem as the Baggage Belt Assignment Problem (BBAP). We first derive a general Integer Linear Programming (ILP) formulation for the problem. Then, we propose a Branch-and-Price (B&P) algorithm based on a reformulation of the ILP model tackled by Column Generation. Our approach relies on an effective dynamic programming algorithm for handling the pricing problems. We tested the proposed algorithm on a set of real-life data from Copenhagen airport as well as on a set of instances inspired by the real data. Our B&P scheme outperforms a commercial solver launched on the ILP formulation of the problem and is effective in delivering high quality solutions in limited computational times, making it possible to use the solution approach in daily operations in medium-sized and large airports. • We present a new formulation of the Baggage Belt Assignment Problem. • Model matches the arrival time of bags with the expected arrival time of passengers. • Exact solution algorithm is presented based on Branch-and-Price. • Pricing problem is solved efficiently by use of dynamic programming. • Computational results on real-life and synthetic data are presented.

Evaluating the economic and ecological impact for small and medium airport subsidies in China

The small and medium-sized airports play an important role for advancing the construction of a powerful civil aviation country in China in the new era. Subsidies for small and medium airports is a way to encourage airports to increase their air transport volume and relieve the financial burden of local governments, it is also helpful to improve the local economy and ecological environment. This paper evaluated the performance of 79 subsidized small and medium airports between 2014 and 2016 by using the Cross Efficiency Model (CEM). The analysis showed that the subsidy efficiency is strongly related to airport development strategies, subsidy distribution and airport emission pollution. First, most of the airports can use subsidy better if they receive a fair and average subsidy level. Second, the airport efficiency in middle and west regions are more rely on subsidies than their eastern peers. Finally and most interestingly, the ecological indicator, PM10 reduction, affects the performance of the eastern airports much more than those in western region. For example, after adding this variable into the evaluation model, 5 airports changed their state from efficiency to inefficiency all located in eastern region, while the efficient state of airports in western keep unchanged.

Optimization of resource demand for passenger services at airports during system failures such as blackouts

BackgroundIn recent years, power outages at airports caused total collapses of terminal operations at the affected airports. These incidents have shown that existing emergency power systems were not sufficient to maintain airport operation. To mitigate the consequences of power outages, it is necessary to improve the management of available resources.MethodologyTherefore, we investigate the possibility to save resources associated to passenger handling processes before departure. For this purpose, we create a simulation model of a generic medium-sized commercial airport. Several simulations with a varying number of service stations at check-in, security and passport control are carried out. Subsequently, we analyze the number of passengers who do not reach their flight due to increased waiting times at the passenger handling services.ResultsThe simulations show that a reduction in resources at check-in counters and passport control initially has no effect on the number of passengers who do not reach their flight. The security control represents a bottleneck in passenger handling. In view of a break-even seat load factor the simulation results show, that a reduction of resources at the check-in below 16 counters, at the security check below 21 and at the passport control below 3 service stations should be avoided.ConclusionTherefore, the developed methodology is able to provide airport operators with decision support during system failures, as to which and how many service stations can be dispensed within the sub-processes of passenger handling without interrupting flight operations.

Measurement of Economic Contribution of Small and Medium Airports and Its Enlightenment to Region Economic Development

Based on the study of the influence mechanism of airports on regional economic development, this paper empirically analyzes the interaction between small and medium-sized airports and regional economic development by using the data of Mianyang Nanjiao airport from 2002 to 2017, in order to provide measurement methods and theoretical support for local governments to encourage and promote the development of local airports. In the part of empirical analysis, firstly, this paper constructs the air transport scale index system of small and medium-sized airports and the evaluation index system of regional economic development. Then, the entropy method is selected to select the key factors of the airport, so as to obtain the airport transportation capacity equivalent, and the principal component analysis method is used to extract the high load index of the regional economic system. Finally, this paper establishes the SVAR model of airport transportation capacity and regional economic relationship, carries out structural impulse response and variance decomposition analysis, draws the conclusion that small and medium-sized airports have a positive impact on regional economic development, but not significant, and analyzes the reasons.

Application Evaluation Research on the Airport Information System

This paper puts forward an applicable evaluation research method for the information system satisfaction in the small and medium-sized airport. It constructs a multi-dimensional index system, and analyzes the influencing factors and weights based on the multiple liner regression function. The evaluation research method could provide quantitative decision support for optimizing the quality of information system and improving the comprehensive service ability.

A Large-Scale Neighborhood Search Approach to Airport Slot Allocation

Access at the vast majority of busy airports located outside the United States is subject to schedule coordination. These airports declare a value of capacity and allocate a corresponding number of slots to the airlines. Slot allocation follows rules and priorities established by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which introduce coupling constraints across the allocation of slots at multiple times of the day and on multiple days of the year. As a result, slot allocation is a highly complex combinatorial problem, which carries enormous weight for airlines, airports, and passengers. Integer programming models have been proposed to support slot allocation by minimizing deviations from the airlines’ requests. Because of the problem’s complexity, these models have been only successfully implemented at small- and medium-sized airports. This paper develops an original algorithm based on large-scale neighborhood search to solve the slot allocation problem at the largest schedule-coordinated airports. The proposed algorithm combines a constructive heuristic, which provides an initial feasible solution in short computational times, and an improvement heuristic, which iteratively reoptimizes slot allocation by subdividing the slot requests into smaller subsets. The algorithm is implemented at Lisbon’s Airport (LIS), one of the top-20 busiest airports in Europe. Results suggest that it can provide optimal or near-optimal solutions in a few hours of computation, while direct implementation of existing optimization models with commercial solvers does not terminate after several days of computation. Ultimately, the proposed approach considerably enhances the capabilities of slot allocation models and algorithms.

An Optimization Method of Controller Scheduling at Small and Medium-sized Airports Based on Fatigue Analysis

In recent years, a number of aviation accidents have caused the social attention to aviation safety. The serious shortage of controllers at China's small and medium-sized airports has become an important hidden danger of aviation accidents. It is necessary to make a scientific and reasonable scheduling scheme in order to solve this problem. Based on civil aviation air traffic management rules to the controllers workload, this article proposes a linear programming method to analysis of China's small and medium-sized airport controllers scheduling model. At the same time, the fatigue factor is accounted into and the model is solved by 0-1 integer programming. Using an actual case data from Wanzhou Airport, the proposed mothed satisfies the needs of the airport and reduce controllers work fatigue to achieve a win-win results.

Resource planning for aircraft refueling in airport parking area

Abstract This paper studies a scheduling problem application for the optimization of the employees used in aircrafts’ refueling in a medium size airport. The problem is modelled as a particular resource leveling problem for which we provide a mixed integer mathematical formulation that we solve with CPLEX. The model allows to evaluate and analyse different scenarios that could be considered by the company in place of the current one in order to rearrange the available human resources used in refueling activity. Experimental results on a set of real test cases provided by an oil & gas company are discussed.

Route expansion in the European air transport market

ABSTRACTThe factors accounting for the significant increase in new routes in the European air transport market in the period 2002–13 are examined. Data for 259 airports with more 250,000 annual passengers are used. The analysis reveals that low-cost airlines extended the benefits of air connectivity to regions with relatively low rates of gross domestic product per capita, increasing the geographical coverage of small or medium-sized airports. New routes are more likely when a tourist destination is an endpoint and are less likely in competitive environments. Finally, different opening patterns by low cost and network airlines are found.

중형 규모 공항의 소음저감 정책 분석

The development in air transport increases noise around the airport. In order to reduce the noise around the airport, International Civil Aviation Organization has made a lot of effort since the 1970s and Many countries, including South Korea, are implementing many noise reduction policies. This paper investigates those noise reduction policies of medium-sized airports with similar frequency to Gimpo, Jeju and Gimhae airports in South Korea and compares eleven airports in Europe, eleven airports in Asia and five airports in America, including Oceania. According to the research, European countries developed and applied the navigation procedure to avoid the noise area according to the characteristics of the airport. In Asia, there are not as many domestic noise reduction policies. In case of the United States, it provides information only on noise-sensitive areas around airports. After having investigated various policies, this research has examined the noise reduction policy of South Korea. It is concluded that new navigation procedures which reduce noise should be developed.

The safety culture stack – the next evolution of safety culture?

Since its inception following the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster in 1986, safety culture has impacted a number of industries, including nuclear power, the oil and gas industry, rail, healthcare, and most recently aviation. In a number of these industries, it has become commonplace, and even integrated into the Safety Management Systems of concerned organisations. Yet there is a sense in some quarters that safety culture, while stabilised into a relatively mature process, has perhaps diminished in terms of the returns on investment for added safety. A new, inter-organisational approach to safety culture, called the Safety Culture Stack, may offer a way to rejuvenate safety culture and yield tangible safety benefits. This evolving approach is evidenced by a case study carried out at a medium-sized airport, currently involving fifteen organisations who are collaborating on safety.

A method of hold baggage security screening system throughput analysis with an application for a medium-sized airport

The hold baggage security screening (HBSS) is one of the essential steps in a pre-flight operation process. With the continuous increase in the overall air traffic volume, the development of security screening (and control) technologies, and the changes in applicable regulations of law, the structure and equipment of HBSS systems require frequent upgrades. In order to make good, effective decisions about the upgrades, airport management requires tools for quantitative determination of their results. The aim of this work is to analyse the HBSS system throughput. The analysis can serve as an aid in airport management in on-the-go solving of operating issues and making decisions about HBSS upgrades. A mathematical model was established for the analysis in the form of a coloured timed Petri net, and implemented in a computer-aided solution. It was a microscale simulation model, in which every piece of hold baggage is localised in time and with a resolution of a single belt conveyor. The computer-simulated experiments completed with the model helped (i) determine the actual throughput of the HBSS system operated at the Katowice International Airport, (ii) determine the effects of disturbances on the HBSS system operation, (iii) evaluate the impact of the time windows available to SSO (security screening operators), the SSO's work organisation and the efficiency of automatic security screening on the HBSS system throughput, and (iv) determine the throughput for specific alternative variants of the HBSS organisation, including doubled automatic security screening. These results allow a conclusion, that a four-level HBSS system, which includes automatic security screening, two SSO screening levels based on X-ray imaging, and manual control is an HBSS solution adequate for a regional medium-sized airport. It was also found that, given the growth of airport facility complexity and area, an increase of HBSS throughput is viable rather not by improving the capacity of specific HBSS components, but by deploying them in parallel processing lines. The highest throughput growth potential lies in parallel deployment of automatic security screening lines.

Particle number concentrations near the Rome-Ciampino city airport

Human exposure to ultrafine particles (UFP) has been postulated to be associated with adverse health effects, and there is interest regarding possible measures to reduce primary emissions. One important source of UFP are airport activities, with aircraft take-offs being the most relevant one. We implemented two measurement campaigns of total particle number concentrations (PNC), a proxy for UFP, near a medium-size airport in central Italy. One-minute PNC averages were collected on June 2011 and January 2012 concurrently with 30-min average meteorological data on temperature and wind speed/direction. Data on minute-specific take-offs and landings were obtained by the airport authorities. We applied statistical regression models to relate PNC data to the presence of aircraft activities while adjusting for time trends and meteorology, and estimated the increases in PNC ±15 min before and after take-offs and landings. We repeated the analyses considering prevalent wind direction and by size of the aircraft. We estimated PNC increases of 5400 particles/cm3/minute during the 15 min before and after take-offs, with a peak of 19,000 particles/cm3/minute within 5 min after take-offs. Corresponding figures for landings were 1300 and 1000 particles, respectively. The highest PNC estimates were obtained when the prevailing wind came from the runway direction, and led to estimated PNC increases of 60,000 particles/cm3/minute within 5 min after take-offs. No main differences were noted from the exhaust of different types of aircrafts. The area surrounding Ciampino airport is densely inhabited, raising concerns about the potential adverse effects of long-term and short-term exposure to airport-borne UFP. A close monitoring of airport activities and emissions is mandatory to reduce the public health impact of the airport on the nearby population.

Supply-and-demand models for exploring relationships between smaller airports and neighboring hub airports in the U.S.

Airport passenger leakage is the phenomenon of air passengers choosing to travel longer distances to access more extensive air services offered by airlines at an out-of-region hub (or, substitute) airport, instead of using their local airports. Airport leakage can cause further reduction in services offered by airlines at a local airport, thereby causing even further leakage, and so on, which can significantly impact an airport's role in the growth of the local economy. This paper explores the geographic and operational attributes of local-and-substitute airport pairs in the United States, explicitly accounting for the interactive feedback relationship between passenger volumes and air service characteristics that contribute to the onset, persistence, and exacerbation of airport passenger leakage. A two-stage least squares regression model of air passenger demand at small- and medium-sized airports is first presented, where local passengers may travel by vehicle to larger, out-of-region hub airports. The results confirm that airfare and passenger volume relationships exist between the local and substitute airport pairs included in the dataset, and that lower airfares at the substitute airport have a greater impact on airport choices made by larger travel groups. They also suggest the existence of positive feedback in that if an airport attracts increasingly smaller passenger numbers with fewer air services and fewer air services with fewer passengers, without external intervention airport leakage impacts may be irreversible and exacerbate over time. A conceptual market share equilibrium analysis is used to illustrate the mechanisms of a direct two-way feedback relationship between passenger volumes at a local airport and air service characteristics at both the local and substitute airports. With data, this quantitative framework can help guide airport planners in further assessing and verifying suspected passenger leakage issues at their airport. The results suggest that without intervention, airport leakage impacts may be difficult to reverse; further exacerbating the trend are technological advancements that make driving cheaper and easier (connected and autonomous vehicles). However, the results can also guide planners in choosing the types and degrees of infrastructure investments and airline incentives that may be used to expand or retain air services to attract passengers.

Lessons from building an automated pre-departure sequencer for airports

Commercial airports are under increasing pressure to comply with the Eurocontrol collaborative decision making (CDM) initiative, to ensure that information is passed between stakeholders, integrate automated decision support or make predictions. These systems can also aid effective operations beyond the airport by communicating scheduling decisions to other relevant parties, such as Eurocontrol, for passing on to downstream airports and enabling overall airspace improvements. One of the major CDM components is aimed at producing the target take-off times and target startup-approval times, i.e. scheduling when the aircraft should push back from the gates and start their engines and when they will take off. For medium-sized airports, a common choice for this is a “pre-departure sequencer” (PDS). In this paper, we describe the design and requirements challenges which arose during our development of a PDS system for medium sized international airports. Firstly, the scheduling problem is highly dynamic and event driven. Secondly, it is important to end-users that the system be predictable and, as far as possible, transparent in its operation, with decisions that can be explained. Thirdly, users can override decisions, and this information has to be taken into account. Finally, it is important that the system is as fair as possible for all users of the airport, and the interpretation of this is considered here. Together, these factors have influenced the design of the PDS system which has been built to work within an existing large system which is being used at many airports.

중소형 지방공항의 건축계획을 위한 기초자료 연구 -항공수요 및 여객이용시설 실태 분석을 중심으로-

Small and medium-sized local airports have suffered from chronic operating deficits due to many factors except for large airports in Incheon, Gimpo, Jeju and Gimhae. These small and medium-sized local airports have currently been degraded to inefficient airports handling the significantly lower airline demand than their carrying capacities. In this context, this study conducted a survey on the actual conditions of the airline demand in small and medium-sized local airports for the last 10 years after the opening of the Korea Train eXpress and investigated the causes and actual conditions of an increase and a decrease in the airline demand. In addition, it analyzed the functionality, convenience and economic feasibility, competition elements in comparison with other means of transportation, and the actual competitive conditions of local airports. It investigated facility improvements through a field visit for local airports and analyzed the performance rate of passenger demands and the use rate of terminal facilities according to a change in the airline demand. This study aimed to provide basic data in the architectural planning field, needed to establish a plan for the airport revitalization of local airports with the results of an analysis on the actual conditions of small and medium-sized local airports.

The impact of airline alliance terminal co-location on airport operations and terminal development

The notion of co-locating alliance carriers to their designated terminals in airports has gained significant interest in recent years. While benefits on the part of airlines are made clear by existing literature on alliance-hubbing, the tangible benefits to airport operators are less clear due to a lack of studies in the literature. This paper considers existing cases of London Heathrow, Paris Charles de Gaulle and Tokyo Narita Airport, and applies their operational practices to a medium-sized airport in Asia Pacific to evaluate the universal applicability of alliance member co-location. Although some operational and financial improvements are observed, the paper concludes that implementation of this concept should not be done through a one-size-fits-all approach.

The Feasibility of Applying Image Processing Technology to Surveillance in the Small or Medium-Sized Airports and RWSL

The small or medium-sized airports are generally lack of airport surface movement detection equipment due to the insufficient financial budget in early and latter investigation of airports constructions or facilities. The paper studied airfield surveillance in the small or medium-sized airports by image processing technology and also discuss diverse surveillance sources in large airport and RWSL one of most key components in A-SMGCS. The analysis include: physical installation of video sensors, range of surveillance coverage, the flowchart of processing, the algorithm for detecting and tracking the moving objects which is suitable for environment of airfield in airport, the projection method between video image coordinate and airfield plan coordinate and the evaluation index of image processing technology.

Hrozba CBRN látek se zaměřením na třídu biologických agens (Modelový příklad pro letiště)

This article describes the question of CBRN and their possible abuses in civil aviation. The problem includes security analysis identified by the Civil Aviation as the most significant class of this group-biological agents. The authors pay them special attention. The second part of paper contains model situation in case of emergency: virus variola (smallpox) attack in a terminal of medium-size international airport. Depending on the detailed properties of virus, transport hub and afflicted area, there are two versions of attack- for summer and winter timetable, according to expected progress of virus extension, and follow-up arrangements.

Simulation-based Selectee Lane queueing design for passenger checkpoint screening

There are two kinds of passenger checkpoint screening lanes in a typical US airport: a Normal Lane and a Selectee Lane that has enhanced scrutiny. The Selectee Lane is not effectively utilized in some airports due to the small amount of passengers selected to go through it. In this paper, we propose a simulation-based Selectee Lane queueing design framework to study how to effectively utilize the Selectee Lane resource. We assume that passengers are classified into several risk classes via some passenger prescreening system. We consider how to assign passengers from different risk classes to the Selectee Lane based on how many passengers are already in the Selectee Lane. The main objective is to maximize the screening system’s probability of true alarm. We first discuss a steady-state model, formulate it as a nonlinear binary integer program, and propose a rule-based heuristic. Then, a simulation framework is constructed and a neighborhood search procedure is proposed to generate possible solutions based on the heuristic solution of the steady-state model. Using the passenger arrival patterns from a medium-size airport, we conduct a detailed case study. We observe that the heuristic solution from the steady-state model results in more than 4% relative increase in probability of true alarm with respect to the current practice. Moreover, starting from the heuristic solution, we obtain even better solutions in terms of both probability of true alarm and expected time in system via a neighborhood search procedure.