Airport Passenger Buildings: Efficiency through Shared Use of Facilities

Abstract

This paper provides a comprehensive guide to the design of shared facilities. Shared facilities serve many users (aircraft, airlines, or types of services) in several functions (arrivals, departures, international and domestic, and so on). They significantly increase the utilization of facilities, thus reducing the amount needed for any level of traffic. They also increase the flexibility of the building, thus enabling it to accommodate easily to variations in traffic composition (the fractions associated with specific airlines or international and domestic services). Shared facilities reduce capital expenditures by up to 30%, and correspondingly increase the return on the investment. Two main factors motivate the use of shared facilities. One is peaking; that is, variations in the levels of traffic (either in hours or a day). The other is uncertainty in the timing of the traffic (either in the short run or in the long run). The paper details the appropriate analyses in each instance. It presents analytic results showing that the design of passenger buildings should normally include shared space, swing gates, and shared facilities that buffer uncertain demands.