It is often said that managing an airport is like being mayor of a city. Similar to a city, an airport is comprised of a huge variety of facilities, systems, users,workers, rules, and regulations. Also, just as cities thrive on trade and commerce with other cities, airports are successful in part by their ability to successfully be the location where passengers and cargo travel to and from other airports. Furthermore, just as cities find their place as part of its county's, states, and country's economy, airports, too, must operate successfully as part of the nation's system of airports. Airports are facing many queries, current challenges in airport management are analysed.
Airport world is changing at a rapid pace; Security, privatization, capacity constraints in airports, economic activity, congestion in airport and airspace, automation, ground access, CNS/ATM, Environmental constraints.
Airlines are turning to bigger and larger aircraft, financial constraints, increasing consumer interests are some of the irritants.
Airport organization structure across the globe is based on one's appreciation of thrust areas.
Airport revenue accrues mainly from operational activities and the trend is to maximize the non-aeronautical revenue and enhance the overall earnings.
Identified Challenges
Flight Information Display
Critical to the efficient running of an airport is the ability to quickly and accurately display flight related information to all members of the airport community including travellers, airline staff, retailers, ground handlers, transportation operators, etc. The Airport Flight Information Display System provides flight related information throughout the Airport including at the checkin desks, baggage belts, gates and arrival/departure screens.
Key Benefits
Standard software package used by all of our global airport customers.
Fully customizable screens with drag and drop capabilities to add text, logos, video clips and database fields.
Fully compatible with all display technologies including LCD & plasma panels, monitors, LED & split flap boards.
Display of real-time weather information, advertising, live TV plus streaming video live from the Internet.
Unlimited system scalability that can grow with your airport requirements or budget.
Aeronautical Billing
Managing an airport's revenue stream can be a complex and difficult task. The Airport Billing Module is designed to vastly simplify the collation and billing of all your flight and non-flight related revenue. The system is completely flexible to your specific business requirements while maintaining billing integrity and ease of use.
Its primary focus is on improved operational efficency and charge flexibility make it an affordable solution, minimizing your costs whilst maximizing your revenue options.
Key Benefits
A proven system payback period averaging less than 12 months
Flight Matching Technology which improves your data quality and therefore the accuracy of your billing
Unlimited charge types and criteria
Ability to handle multiple discount options and rebates
Access to detailed movement history combined with the ability to reverse and recharge if necessary
Complete flexibility in invoice generation and presentation
In depth validation of aircraft registrations, configuration changes and aircraft movements
Sophisticated statistical and reporting capability giving airport management a clear view of key revenue streams
Airport AODB
The Airport Operational Database (AODB) ensures that every person working at, or passing through the airport has the information they need at the time they need it. Moreover, the use of a single database by all functions ensures data input and usage are optimised and efficient and that information distribution occurs immediately.
Key Benefits
Fully customisable database to your specific airport management requirements
Support for all leading databases including Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server
Using one integrated database ensures easy upgrades and the ability to quickly add additional Airport 20/20 modules as your needs evolve
One central database allows management an instantaneous view of all real time and historical information
Reporting is made simple with the ability to derive accurate financial, operational and executive Key Performance Indicators.
Resourse Planning and Management
Managing airport resources effectively and efficiently, including gates, stands, ticket counters and baggage belts is fundamental to the successful management of an airport. The Airport Resource Planning & Management System is an easy to use, long term planning and real time decision support tool for managing these resources.
Key Benefits
Automatic handling of all the complexities of gate management including flight scheduling, aircraft types and code share arrangements
Real-time scheduling of gates including the solving of allocation conflicts
Optimistation technology to assist staff with making the best use of all airport resources
Graphical display for ease of use
Quick and accurate decision making
Improved passenger service levels
Integrates directly with Airport 20/20 billing module allowing for the efficient billing of these resources.
Cost savings due to more efficient use of airport resources
Staff Information Intranet
The unique information requirements of an airport are addressed by the Airport Staff Information Intranet. Using browser based technology this solution provides users with information specifically tailored to their role at the airport. This means that every member of the airport community whether they be airline staff, customs officers, ground handlers, TSA, refuelers, etc will get targeted information meeting their exact requirements.
A Staff Intranet is a cost effective way to improve behind the scenes communication at your airport.
Offering high standards of service to your customers is now an expected part of air travel. Airport offers a range of systems designed to assist in delivering exceptional service.
Key Benefits
Browser based technology for simple access from any computer within the airport community
Low cost of disseminating of information to airport staff
Information for staff is tailored to their specific role within the airport
Increased efficiency
Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
Airport Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Module is an automated and centralised approach to dealing with customer service requirements and enquiries via telephone. As IVR automates routine inquires, your staff can focus on handling more complex issues offering you operational efficiency benefits.
Key Benefits
A predetermined menu of available services including international and domestic arrivals and departures
Delay announcement and reporting
Remote administration capabilities to ensure message integrity
Call transfer to an airport service representative option
Automated call routing
Multi-lingual
The Airport IVR module is based on the work flow of customer request procedures and integrates with your existing telephone PABX system.
Incident Management
The Airport Incident Management system tracks all incident related activities within your airport, from lost and found through to security alerts. The system is designed to track activity, assign essential tasks to the correct people and provide tools for successful resolution.
Key Benefits
An effective tool for quick resolution and management of airport activities
Simple tracking and escalation of tasks to the right people in the airport
Information is provided at the fingertips of the right people within the airport, enabling effective decision making.
Common Use Passenger Processing
Airports are now able to process passengers more efficiently and at lower cost by implementing the Common Use Passenger Processing System (CUPPS). The advent of affordable technology now provides airlines with better ways to process passengers and their baggage using their own software and IT systems from a common use environment.
Traditional common use solutions are proprietary legacy based systems which are expensive and restrict system users to specific operating environments and peripherals. CUPPS is based upon the latest technologies available therefore installing CUPPS is the best way for an airport to ensure that its common use system will work well into the future, no just at the time it is commissioned.
CUPPS is a client-server PC based solution that utilises all industry standard equipment and peripherals. CUPPS can be interfaced to the airport's Baggage Reconciliation System (BRS) and other airport systems. The peripherals supported by CUPPS include: ATB1 and ATB2 Boarding Pass Printers, Bag Tag Printers, Boarding Gate Readers, Passport Readers and general purpose document printers.
CUPPS is also extremely flexible, secure and stable. This is because each airline operates within their own individual VLAN, using the operating system and application software of its choice and is connected to its Host via a dedicated router or gateway. This system architecture isolates individual airlines and eliminates the need for any 'certification' of airline software (as is generally required with traditional CUTE).
Key Benefits
Cost savings from use of current technology
Maximised investment in facilities such as ticket counters and gates
Airlines can use their own native software applications eliminating additional staff training requirements
A fully scalable and extendable CUPP solution.
Property Management
As airport shareholders and owners demands grow, non-aeronautical related income is becoming increasingly important for airports. This Airport module helps airports to manage their rental, lease, licence and concession related interests. It provides the information you need to make important property related business decisions.
Key Benefits
Improved accuracy of non-flight related income streams
Automisation of routine and repetitive tasks
Comprehensive reporting to track revenue and budgets
Full integration with other Airport 20/20 systems including Billing and AODB
Example
New York, USA - Gentrack, developer of the 20/20 Airport Management System, announced today that Terminal One at JFK International Airport in New York has gone live with its 20/20 Resource Operations Simulator (RMS SimOps). Deployment of the RMS SimOps solution adds another module to Terminal One's existing integrated 20/20 Airport Management System used for Airport Operational Database, Message Broker, Flight Information Display management, Aeronautical Billing and Resource Management.
20/20 RMS SimOps provides an airport with a self-contained test-bed for running complex airport resource allocation scenarios. This solution was selected by Terminal One to assist with seasonal planning, testing of business rules, and scenario discussions with carriers through active resource visualisation. The solution also enables Terminal One to quickly evaluate ad-hoc flight enquiries from carriers - a key function put to the test almost immediately by Terminal One Operations Manager Neil Samaroo.
"During training for the 20/20 RMS SimOps system, we received a phone call from Air France for a VIP flight enquiry and we took the opportunity to run a resourcing scenario through the new system," said Samaroo. "We had an answer for Air France within half an hour. Without the new 20/20 RMS SimOps, Air France would typically have waited up to 2-3 days before getting a response from our resource management team. This is a remarkable efficiency gain for Terminal One."
Compacting Strategies
According to recent forecasts released by Airports Council International (ACI), over the next 15 years, global air passenger traffic will grow by over 4% per annum. This means that by 2020 something like 7 billion people will be using the world's airports, and, with freight traffic growing at an even greater rate of around 5.1% per annum, reaching some 170 million tons in 2020, it is clear that greater airport capacity is a precondition for achieving the forecast growth.
Airport operators spent more on new capacity than ever before and continued investment in infrastructure development at many congested hubs is set to continue. Spending on new airport technologies is also increasing, driven not only by the need to cater for growing consumer demand, but also by the need to reduce congestion and improve passenger throughput, safety and security.
Capacity constraints
Capacity constraints include not only limited physical infrastructure like
runways and terminals but also administrative restrictions like night curfews,
noise & emission budgets or noise & emission limits, which all restrict the
overall level of air travel demand an airport is potentially able to serve. If
available airport capacity lies below the present or future demand potential of
a particular airport, the airport choice of individual air travellers will be affected
and will thus differ from a no-capacity-constraints case. Here demand
potential of an airport is defined as the number of air travellers who choose a
particular airport without capacity restraint. However, airport choice varies
considerably when travellers are faced with capacity constraints, and thus
depends on the gap between demand potential of an airport and the demand
at capacity level. Thus it would seem appropriate to incorporate the impact of
capacity constraints in a systematic and coherent way when planning studies
on future airport choice.
Air travellers' first choice of a departure airport may not necessarily be a
realistic one in a capacity-limited airport environment where demand exceeds
supply at some airports. Therefore some air travellers will opt for second
choice flight offers from other airports. The existence of sufficient supply at
every airport, however, is a basic assumption of many passengers' airport
choice models.
© Association for European Transport and contributors 2009 2
Travel
disutility
Airport capacity expandable?
Low
High / No Yes
Redistribution of
demand among
neighbouring
airports
Restricted growth
of local demand
Airport capacity
expansion
"Mixed strategy"
Figure 1: Impact of capacity constraints on airport choice (Gelhausen 2009)
Figure 1 demonstrates the possible consequences of capacity constraints at
airports on the basis of two important factors as experienced by air travellers
(Gelhausen 2009):
ïŸï€ Travel disutility relates to the efforts that air travellers have to take if
they change their departure airport, leading for instance to increased
travel time. These efforts are significantly less in a more decentralised
airport environment with good road and rail access to airports than in a
more centralised configuration with a lack of suitable alternative
airports in a given choice situation.
ïŸï€ Whether airport capacity is expandable or not within a comparatively
short time horizon depends on several factors, including geographical,
political, ecological and economical variables. These factors differ from
airport to airport.
Figure 1 also shows three basic future consequences of capacity constraints
at airports (Gelhausen 2009):
ïŸï€ If travel disutility is high from the point of view of the air traveller and
capacity expansion is possible, airport capacity expansion is a likely
option at least over a medium time horizon.
ïŸï€ On the other hand, if travel disutility is low and capacity expansion is
not possible, some air travellers might choose a neighbouring airport
instead.
ïŸï€ However, if both travel disutility is high and capacity expansion is not
possible, demand is partly lost and thus local demand growth
restricted.
"Mixed strategy" describes an option between the first and second
consequences; however, the precise definition depends on whether travel
disutility or the possibility of airport capacity expansion is the major constraint.
© Association for European Transport and contributors 2009 3
Germany has a quite dense network of airports and therefore the focus of the
empirical example of this paper lies on the second case, where the capacities
of neighbouring airports absorb increasing air travel demand. Nevertheless,
the new methodology described in the following chapters applies both to an
airport system which has sufficient aggregate capacity as well as to an airport
environment suffering from an aggregate capacity shortage.
The outline
Automation
For Continental passengers flying out of Houston, boarding a plane has become a lot more like getting on the subway. The airport is the first in America to test "self-boarding" gates, in which passengers simply run their boarding passes through a machine before getting on the plane without having to hand it to a staff member, USA Today reports.
Airline staffers will still be at the gate performing other duties. The TSA says that since passengers pass through security checks earlier, the agency has determined that self-boarding gates won't impact security. Fourteen other airlines worldwide use the technology, and self-boarding gates are expected to proliferate in the US if the Houston experiment is a success.
Security infrastructure on airfields
Airport facilities require protection from acts of vandalism, theft, and potential terrorist attack. To provide a measure of protection, unauthorized persons must be precluded from having access to all airfield facilities. At most airports where air traffic control facilities, approach lighting systems, and other navigation and weather aids are present, perimeter fencing around the airfield is strongly recommended. In addition, security procedures should be established for the protection of the airfield and its facilities. Access to the airfield from the perimeter is typically regulated by some means of controlled access. At smaller airports controlled access measures may be limited to simple padlocks securing access gates adjoining the perimeter fence. Other access controls include the use of identification cards and number combinations to open electronically secured access points
.
Conclusion
