Norwegian Airports Research Articles

Policing Global Hubs: Balancing the Imperatives of Security and Trade

Abstract Global hubs such as airports and maritime ports are geographical centers where immense flows converge, and are characterized by speed, time and efficiency in linking local markets and global economic trade networks. Being symbolic infrastructures of capitalism, global hubs may attract criminal exploitation and be exposed to security risks. Drawing on extensive interview material from those involved in Norwegian airport and port security, this article explores how policing agencies experience the balancing of the imperatives of security and trade. It reveals how policing agencies are affected by, and seek to adapt to, the demands for efficiency and speed intrinsic to the trade regime, thereby highlighting the importance of the temporal dimension to understanding the complexities of contemporary security governance.

Expecting the exceptional in the everyday: Policing global transportation hubs

There has been considerable scholarly interest regarding the notion of exceptionality, i.e. how and under what conditions extraordinary powers and measures are justified in the name of security. Exceptional threats are now omnipresent in the security discourse of the aviation and maritime industries, and this influences the everyday working environment. Taking Norwegian airport and port security as its point of departure, this article analyzes how security and policing agencies perceive, experience, and respond to the exceptional as part of their everyday practice. Drawing on extensive interview material with security agencies, it reveals how agencies construct strategies to cope with the consequences of exceptionality that arise from heightened (in)security and vulnerability. This article demonstrates that instrumental logic in risk management is one crucial strategy, but evidence also reveals the importance of the human dimension in security practices, as the emotional aspect of security consciousness is a part of the everyday life of security agencies. Closely associated with this is the emergence of mechanisms of active resistance that provide excitement and alleviate boredom.

Forecasting air traffic demand for major infrastructure changes

The paper provides a review of traffic forecasting methods and compares the predictions generated by using different quantitative methods based on a case example from a planned Norwegian airport. The paper focuses particularly on two forecasting methods. The case airport exemplifies how analogies as a forecasting method might be better suited than elasticity methods for studies of major changes in infrastructure. The difference in traffic forecasts will depend on the methodological approach chosen and some generic considerations are given on this topic. In the studied case, we find that the airport project has a negative net present value when the lowest traffic forecasts are used and a positive net present value when the highest traffic forecasts are used. Hence, the inability to draw unambiguous conclusions would be confusing for decision-makers when deciding on whether to build the airport.

Economic Impact Assessment of Regulatory Changes: A Case Study of a Proposed New ICAO Standard for Contaminated Runways

The literature on economic impact assessments (EIA) of regulatory changes in the transport sector is scarce. This study examines how a change in the regulatory framework for air transport could affect transport costs. The case in question is the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) State letter AN 4/1.2.26-16/19 that proposed to set a higher minimum friction on runways operated during slippery conditions. This may affect operations, particularly in the northern hemisphere. Four Norwegian airports that operate under severe winter conditions are used as examples. Sudden cancellations or transfers to another airport give additional costs per passenger, ranging from NOK 750 to NOK 5600 per return flight. If these results are generalized to all affected flights in Norway, the annual estimate is NOK 400–450 million. These numbers may not seem exorbitant. However, the costs are mainly borne by a limited number of airports. Some of them may have to close during winter, with severe consequences for local communities. This study illustrates how effects of a proposed regulatory change may be assessed in order to aid the decision-making process. The impacts on aviation safety are not considered. Data on aircraft accidents in Norway do not indicate significant effects from the proposed regulatory change.

Sorbent amendment as a remediation strategy to reduce PFAS mobility and leaching in a contaminated sandy soil from a Norwegian firefighting training facility

Aqueous film-forming foams (AFFF) containing poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) used for firefighting have led to the contamination of soil and water at training sites. The unique physicochemical properties of PFAS results in environmental persistency, threatening water quality and making remediation of such sites a necessity. This work investigated the role of sorbent amendment to PFAS contaminated soils in order to immobilise PFAS and reduce mobility and leaching to groundwater. Soil was sampled from a firefighting training facility at a Norwegian airport and total and leachable PFAS concentrations were quantified. Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) was the most dominant PFAS present in all soil samples (between 9 and 2600 μg/kg). Leaching was quantified using a one-step batch test with water (L/S 10). PFOS concentrations measured in leachate water ranged between 1.2 μg/L and 212 μg/L. Sorbent amendment (3%) was tested by adding activated carbon (AC), compost soil and montmorillonite to selected soils. The extent of immobilisation was quantified by measuring PFAS concentrations in leachate before and after amendment. Leaching was reduced between 94 and 99.9% for AC, between 29 and 34% for compost soil and between 28 and 40% for the montmorillonite amended samples. Sorbent + soil/water partitioning coefficients (KD) were estimated following amendment and were around 8 L/kg for compost soil and montmorillonite amended soil and ranged from 1960 to 16,940 L/kg for AC amended soil. The remediation of AFFF impacted soil via immobilisation of PFAS following sorbent amendment with AC is promising as part of an overall remediation strategy.

How to measure community tolerance levels for noise.

Relationships between noise exposure and transportation noise induced annoyance have been studied extensively for several decades. The annoyance due to aircraft noise exposure is in the present paper assumed to be influenced by the day-night yearly average sound level (DNL). It has long been recognized that the annoyance also depends on non-DNL factors, but this is complicated-resulting in a variety of different modeling strategies. Motivated by this, the community tolerance level (CTL) was introduced in 2011 for a loudness-based psychometric function. It is a single parameter that accounts for the aggregate influence of other factors. This paper suggests and investigates different methods for the measurement of the CTL. The methods are illustrated on data found in the literature, on recent surveys around two Norwegian airports, and on simulated data. The results from the presented methods differ significantly. An elementary method is shown to give a measurement of the CTL with smaller uncertainty, and is recommended as a replacement for the originally suggested least-squares method. Methods for evaluating the measurement uncertainty are also presented.

Marginal costs pricing of airport operations in Norway

The article first reviews the charge scheme used to finance the airport infrastructure in Norway. Then an econometric approach is taken using empirical data for production and costs from 2007 to 2009 in order to derive long-run marginal costs for passengers and air traffic movements at Norwegian airports using panel data analysis. The marginal costs are then applied as the basis for a revised airport charge scheme designed to meet the principle of maximizing social benefits. The results suggest that there should be a shift towards a relatively higher charge for passengers compared to air traffic movements.

Efficiency of Italian and Norwegian airports: A matter of management or of the level of competition in remote regions?

Benchmarking has proven to be a useful tool with which to compare and evaluate the performance of airports but sometimes the determinants of performance are not investigated or accurately interpreted. This paper analyses the cost efficiency of 35 Italian and 46 Norwegian airports over time. We apply a two-stage DEA approach, with truncated regression models in the second stage to evaluate the role of competition as a key determinant of the first stage efficiency scores. For that reason we initially use a separate model to measure the level of competition at the relevant airports both from other airports and from surface transport. We show that particularly for regional and small airports, it is the level of competition that impacts on the airport’s efficiency. Military use/ownership and size of airports also have a positive impact on efficiency although diseconomies of scale matter when infrastructure is taken into account. Finally, when regressed separately, we find that Italian airports that are managed through a concession have higher efficiency scores than those with partial and temporary partial concessions.

Wanted and Unwanted Nature: Landscape Development at Fornebu, Norway

Black listing and red listing of species are two of few available tools for dealing with alien species spread and biodiversity loss. This paper sets out to address the categorizations of plants as alien and often black listed or, alternatively, native and often red listed and argues that these categories are portrayed as scientifically neutral within environmental management and conservation efforts while being founded on value-laden and constructed temporal thresholds. Based on Quentin Skinner's perspective of concepts as speech acts the paper explores how categorizations of plants are perceived and ‘practiced’ among actors in a landscape development process, namely a qualitative case study of the redevelopment of the former main Norwegian airport, Fornebu in Oslo, into a green site for housing, business and recreation. Here, conservationists clashed with the planners and landscape architects over the planting of alien species. The Fornebu conflict illustrates how black listing and red listing are founded on a sense of time which largely implies idealizing and preserving certain ‘natural’ conditions, processes or landscapes in a ‘frozen’ state serving as a measuring stick for the future. The paper demonstrates the need for making implicit values in environmental management and planning more explicit in order to meet environmental challenges related to alien, invasive species spread and biodiversity loss.

Explanatory Power of Different Data Envelopment Analysis Models for Determining Airports' Cost-Efficiency

For analyzing the cost-efficiency of airports and the determinants of that efficiency, several data envelopment analysis (DEA) methods are available. The variety across the available approaches is a result primarily of different assumptions in the model specification. Although it is well established that the outcomes of these models vary depending on what the analyst assumes with respect to input and output orientation and economies of scale, there is still a lively debate on the impact of bootstrapping and the choice of input variables on the explanatory power of such models. This paper analyzes the cost-efficiency of Italian and Norwegian airports over time. A series of two-stage DEA approaches is applied, with truncated regression models in the second stage to evaluate the explanatory value of the chosen methods and also to establish robust results on the impact factors of airports' cost-efficiency. With regard to the latter it is found that the impact of airport size is limited to technical efficiency and that the catchment area is the most significant impact factor on cost-efficiency.

Management of airports in extreme winter conditions—some lessons from analysing the efficiency of Norwegian airports

Managing airports' winter operations has become a very important subject in recent years. Snow and ice have led to major difficulties and flight disruptions at key European hubs and subsequently to losses of revenue and reputation for the aviation industry. With substantially less funds available at regional airports, the management of these entities in often much harsher winter conditions is an even greater challenge. By applying bootstrapped two-stage DEA models to Norwegian airports, we find that regional airports perform on average not worse than the prime example of Oslo airport. Although technical efficiency is often relatively poor (particularly when accounting for costs), the size of remote airports appears not to be a major problem as for many of the small airports we find very little diseconomies of scale. Our results suggest further that good management practices, appropriate training and an enhanced predictability of environment factors can overcome severe winter conditions and can lead to efficient airport management.

Braking performance of commercial airplanes during operation on winter contaminated runways

Abstract The relation between descriptive information of runway surface conditions and the braking performance of commercial airplanes was investigated at two Norwegian airports during the winter seasons 2008/2009 and 2009/2010. Of the 24,928 analyzed landings, 885 landings (3.6%) took place where the airplane stopping capability was limited by the frictional conditions on the runway. For these landings the airplane braking coefficient ( μ B ) was determined using the Boeing Airplane Braking Performance Model. The average μ B was clearly sensitive to the reported type and spatial coverage of contamination; however there exists a large variability between individual landings on the same reported conditions. To a lesser extent, the average μ B was sensitive to the amount of precipitation accumulated since the last runway inspection/snow clearing. The results of this study are relevant for ongoing initiatives to interpret descriptive information on runway surface condition in a scale ranging from “poor” to “good”.

A Multiscale Approach to Micrositing of Wind Turbines

A four level multiscale model capable of modeling local wind and turbulence fields for micro and macrositing of wind turbines is described. The system is based on a coupling involving an operational numerical weather prediction model, a mesoscale model and a local turbulence prediction Computational Fluid Dynamics code. Existence of a large variation in the spatio-temporal scales in an atmospheric flow necessitates such a coupling between different models each of which handles a particular range of scales. The system which is first of its kind, is operational at nineteen Norwegian airports spread throughout the country and is giving an hourly prediction of the local wind field and turbulence intensity on a daily basis. The system is thus in a continuous phase of validation with the meteorological data recorded at the airports. The tool as such can also be used for macro and micrositing of wind turbines. In this report, we first present a comparison of the wind rose computed by different numerical models with the observed ones and then explain the potential of the tool for micrositing through its application to an existing wind park in Norway

Doomed to Fail: A Case Study of Change Implementation Collapse In the Norwegian Civil Aviation Industry

Managerial choices for change implementation methods have a direct impact on strategic change outcomes. In a three-year longitudinal case study of the Norwegian airport management and air navigation services provider – Avinor – a fundamental mismatch between organizational culture type and change implementation method contributed to the premature collapse of a deliberate strategic change initiative. The major contribution of this article is to expand our knowledge about identifying and avoiding potential pitfalls resulting from a fundamental mismatch between organizational culture in place and change implementation methods during deliberate organizational change. The findings from this case study will show how managerial choices and actions, such as: consensus building, communication and use of participation during deliberate change processes, can positively influence attitudes towards change. However, it will also show that a sudden reversal from a participatory process to purely top-down implementation can lead to a breakdown in consensus and trust, leading to internal and external resistance, and the premature collapse of a change process.

Assessing security measures reducing terrorist risk: inverse ex post cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analyses of Norwegian airports and seaports

When the risks of unwanted events and the impacts of countermeasures are well-known, an economic assessment would compare the costs of the measures with the benefits of reduced risk. For evaluating countermeasures against terrorist attacks this is, however, not straight-forward. Both the baseline risk of terrorist attacks and the possible risk-reducing impacts of the security measures adopted are largely unknown. A possible approach to the economic assessment in such cases is to adopt inverse ex post economic analyses. Inverse ex post analysis in our case will be an assessment of already implemented security measures at Norwegian airports/seaports, trying to inversely estimate implicit benefits for estimated terror risks and risk changes due to the implemented measures. Such implicit benefits might be measured as implicit costs of lives saved or, more generally, as an implicit value of what is protected in airports and in seaports. Our analysis indicates that for justifying the costs of the implemented security measures, it implies huge cost per life saved and a quite enormous valuation of what the measures protect. A low estimated baseline risk of terror attacks explains to a large degree these findings. Nevertheless, even if fatalities represent a major societal cost of terrorist attacks, there are other potential costs regarding infrastructure, that to a large degree have been disregarded in our analyses. If all potential societal costs could be included, this would justify a higher level of security spending, but not necessarily the levels that our estimates indicate.

Economic appraisal in Norwegian aviation

The Norwegian Civil Aviation Administration (NCAA) is responsible for investments and operations regarding the Norwegian airport system, and the air traffic management systems. This paper presents methods for economic appraisal in the aviation sector, proposed for use within the NCAA's jurisdiction. Methodological problems will be addressed, such as the handling of project risk and uncertainty, projects with mutual dependency, and projects influencing accident risks. The cost–benefit analysis methodology proposed here may give conflicting recommendations compared with financial analyses. This raises decision-making problems for public agencies like the NCAA.

Community response to noise from short-term military aircraft exercise

A study of community reactions to noise in the vicinity of a Norwegian airport has been conducted in connection with two large military exercises. An extensive questionnaire was presented to a random sample of residents before, during and after each exercise. More than 3400 interviews were completed. The group of respondents also contained a panel of about 200 people who were given identical questions in each survey series. This paper presents the results with an emphasis on the data from this panel. The results indicate that the general reaction to aircraft noise is not altered by short periods with increased noise exposure.

Improved Antenna Systems for ILS Localizers

For many years Norwegian airports have been equipped with instrument landing system (ILS) localizers of conventional type. Most of the localizers, however, were found not to perform very well on these sites. The course bends were too large and even moderate amounts of snow and ice could cause the localizer to fall out of operation. To overcome these difficulties, the requirements for localizer operation at these airports were analyzed and a new and improved antenna system developed. After a long period of operational testing, during which it was made clear that a substantial improvement in performance had been achieved, the new localizer antenna system is now in operation at 13 Norwegian airports.