A discrete event simulation model for inbound baggage handling

Abstract Inbound baggage handling represents a crucial process among airport terminal's activities as it affects directly airport performance and passengers' service quality perception. It is important to make the inbound process as efficient as possible and to explore solutions to enhance the performance of the system, thus reducing passengers' waiting time at baggage carousels. The aim of this paper is to present a detailed discrete event model of inbound baggage handling at a large regional Italian airport. The simulation model allows to fully understand the whole process and to identify bottlenecks and critical operations. The model is validated by comparing the simulation results with real data