Optimisation of check-in process focused on passenger perception for using self-service technologies at airports in Australia

Purpose: The use of technology is constantly evolving for various services at airports to enhance the passenger experience. However, the passenger’s perspective towards the technology is different. Design/methodology: A survey was conducted to know these perspectives and find the differences. The collected data was based on the passengers at Australian airports. The CAST software was used to analyse the simulation model. Findings: The collected survey helped in identifying three types of passengers: the number of passengers who prefer traditional service, the number of passengers who prefer technologybased services and the number of passengers who prefer technology-based services only under the specific circumstances such as less crowded and less processing time. Each type of passenger was further analysed based on their provided arriving time at the terminal and processing time for check-in to evaluate the impact on waiting time. Practical implications: The findings suggest that only one third passengers prefer technologybased services at airports and present the resulting impact on the waiting time at check-in facilities. Originality/value: Given the current rate of technological innovations at airports, the findings provide insights for check-in facilities management at airports.Peer Reviewe

Evolutionary dynamic optimisation of airport security lane schedules

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Reducing costs whilst maintaining passenger satisfaction is an important problem for airports. One area this can be applied is the security lane checks at the airport. However, reducing costs through reducing lane openings typically increases queue length and hence passenger dissatisfaction. This paper demonstrates that evolutionary methods can be used to optimise airport security lane schedules such that passenger dissatisfaction and staffing costs can be minimised. However, it is shown that these schedules typically over-fit the forecasts of passenger arrivals at security such that in actuality significant passenger delays can occur with deviations from the forecast. Consequently, this paper further demonstrates that dynamic evolutionary re-optimisation of these schedules can significantly mitigate this over-fitting problem with much reduced passenger delays

Distribution Optimization Model for Passenger Departure via Multimodal Transit

International airports in China have become a complex hub between airport and multimodal transit stations. Dissimilar passenger departure demands in different transit mode cause wide gaps among departure times from airport to these modes. In this context, hub managers need to balance the distribution of air passengers to transit modes in order to reduce departure delays and alleviate the congestion in transit stations, even though they cannot change the operating plan of airport or transit stations. However, few research efforts have addressed this distribution. Therefore, we developed a distribution optimization model for passenger departure that minimizes the average departure time and is solved by Genetic Algorithm. To describe differences in passenger choices, without taking into consideration the metropolitan transportation network outside the airport, we introduced the concept of rigid and elastic departures. To reflect the tendency of elastic passengers to choose different transit modes, we assume that the passengers change to other modes in different proportions. A case revealed that the presence of rigid passengers allows managers to partly balance the distribution of passengers and improve the average departure time. When the volume of passengers approaches the peak volume, the optimized distribution significantly improves the departure time

Common Problems of Airport Passenger Terminal Operations

Airport passenger terminal operations include all the activities that passengers will experience in the airport from being processed through boarding to the plane and the other services available at the terminal facility. The consistent increases in passenger rates have had major effects on these procedures among the world’s airports and have caused certain problems for airport terminal operations. This paper provides a brief introduction about airport passenger terminals and their operations and identifies several frequently observed problems that exist among the airports. In addition to identifying the outcomes that have resulted from each of these problems, many suggestions or recommended solutions have been provided. These recommendations are based on research and studies available in the literature. Relevant sources that have been used in the literature include books, journal articles, official aviation or airport related reports, and online news articles

Considering flexibility in the evolutionary dynamic optimisation of airport security lane schedules

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Airports face pressures to reduce costs at the security lane area by reducing lane opening hours whilst maintaining a passenger service level. Evolutionary methods have been shown to design schedules that minimise both objectives. However, by reducing lane opening hours schedules have a tendency to over-fit the expectation of passenger arrivals at security resulting in long delays with deviations from this forecast. Evolutionary dynamic re-optimisation can mitigate for this reducing passenger waiting times but the security lane problem is an example of a constrained problem in that schedules cannot be significantly altered. Consequently, this paper will investigate the consideration of flexibility when evolving initial schedules to facilitate the evolutionary dynamic re-optimization process. Several differing methods of measuring flexibility will be investigated alongside reducing security lane opening hours and passenger waiting times. Results demonstrate that considering flexibility in the initial design of schedules improves the effectiveness of evolutionary dynamic re-optimisation of schedules

Framework development for improving arrival processing of pilgrims at Hajj and Umrah airport terminals

Millions of Muslims around the world perform the Hajj, a mandatory religious journey to the holy city of Mecca, at least once in their lifetime. Therefore, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims arrive weekly at Jeddah and Medina Airports during the Hajj period determined by the Islamic calendar. Numerous research studies have been published on the health, security, risk management and logistics aspects of the mass gathering. However, studies on pilgrims’ wait times, flow and satisfaction at the Hajj and Umrah Terminals (HT)s are very limited. The research evaluating the inbound passenger domain is especially limited. Therefore, this study contributes to the literature by combining different perspectives regarding the inefficiency of HT processes. Furthermore, this study proposes and investigates various aspects to improve the processing of arriving passengers at HTs. It does so by identifying and studying the factors that impede the flow of passengers within these terminals from users’ and providers’ perspectives. This research aims to contribute by developing an innovative integrated framework to improve the flow of pilgrims through arrival terminals and determining how large crowds at airports can be better managed. To meet the study’s aims, a simulation model is developed to verify and confirm the performance of arrival passenger processes at HTs by conducting a mixedmethods analysis and integrating the numerical results of the agent-based and discrete-event simulation models. This study creates a problematic review matrix based on users’ and providers’ perspectives. In addition, the survey on providers’ perspectives indicates that there are five factors, human, infrastructure, operational, technical and organisational factors, influencing arrival passenger processes at HTs and interacting with level of service (LoS) variables. The study indicates the suboptimal processes at airport terminals to focus on the factors negatively affecting the HT processes. In addition, the research highlights the role of terminal configurations. This study compares two airports in terms of peak demand patterns. According to the study, sharp peaks can have strong negative impacts on HTs, while evenly distributed demand can improve LoS at HTs. The simulation model outcomes verify and confirm the parameters and factors influencing LoS. In addition, the study’s integrated framework provides diverse viewpoints on the operational processes at HTs, while the density map matrix helps to classify the processes. This study applies what-if scenarios to identify the impact of pilgrims’ experience and biometric characteristics and finds that inexperience and certain biometric characteristics have negative impacts on LoS. Limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are discussed.Transport System