مقاله انگلیسی رایگان در مورد نقشه راه برای مدیریت ظرفیت و تقاضای فرودگاه – الزویر ۲۰۱۸

This paper synthesizes the major interventions available to manage airport demand and capacity, the analytical tools that may support the underlying policy, managerial and operational decisions, and guidelines for policy and practice obtained from recent research. The resulting insights fall into three broad categories. First, airport throughput exhibits significant variability, and airport capacity depends on the available infrastructure and operating procedures. Second, airport on-time performance is highly non-linear, and thus sensitive to variations in demand and capacity. Third, airport demand management involves a trade-off between mitigating congestion and maximizing capacity utilization, and scheduling mechanisms can support and enhance existing practices. The implications for the development and management of airport systems worldwide are discussed.

Introduction

Problem of demand and capacity management

Airports play a central role in urban development by connecting individuals, businesses and governments, and spurring indirect commercial activities. Over the past decades, airports have accommodated increasing numbers of operations to support regional and national growth and airline business development. Despite declines following 9/11 and during the economic downturn in 2008 and 2009, air traffic has grown significantly in the United States and Europe, and even more rapidly in Asia and Oceania and, more recently, in Africa and Latin America. At the same time, airport throughput is limited by the existing infrastructure and operational capabilities. At many of the world’s busiest airports—and despite a number of capacity expansion projects (e.g., the construction of new runways)—demand for airport access has grown to often exceed airport capacity in many metropolitan areas. The impact of the resulting imbalances between demand and capacity depends on access policies (see Section 1.2). At airports with largely unconstrained access (e.g., the overwhelming majority of US airports), the result can be over-capacity scheduling and delays, with significant congestion costs—for instance, the nationwide impact of flight delays in the United States was estimated at over $30 billion in 2007 (Ball et al., 2010). At airports where access is restricted (e.g., most of the busiest European airports), the restrictions can result in demand losses and/or demand displacement (e.g., to less preferred times of the day or to other airports). At the opposite end, airline demand at less busy airports may fall well below available capacity, resulting in the under-utilization of infrastructure resources. For airports under development, this underscores the need for proactive management of demand and capacity, ranging from long-term infrastructure planning to medium-term infrastructure management and short-term infrastructure operations. This paper synthesizes the major operational, managerial and policy mechanisms available to manage airport demand and capacity, the analytical tools supporting the underlying decisions, and the implications for the development and management of airports. As indicated by Keeney (1973) in the context of the (existing) Mexico City airport, this requires consideration of multiple criteria, such as ensuring safety, maximizing throughput, minimizing capital expenditures and operations costs, promoting airline competition, mitigating air traffic congestion, and promoting environmental sustainability. These objectives can be aligned (e.g., mitigating congestion has a positive environmental impact), but may also give rise to some trade-offs (e.g., increasing throughput generally requires significant investments).