T&L in the Press

The cargo business can be hard work for an airport. Cargo generates traffic on airport roads, it occupies important airport land and, of course, it uses vital ramp space while not producing the sort of returns that would be expected of activities with highest and best use.

This paper discusses why cargo is so important for most combination carriers, how size of operation is an important factor in making decisions about how to facilitate cargo operations at an airport and the factors that need to be considered by cargo operators and airports in making cargo land and facility decisions. It concludes that cargo is often important to the health of carriers, and is therefore important to airports; as such, it must be supported with good operating conditions.

There is much air cargo carriers can learn from integrators about efficient hub operations. And it is on the ground that profits can be won, argues Paul Bloch of Transport & Logistics Consultancy.

The aviation security situation has become increasingly difficult for passengers, airlines and airports alike. As passenger and baggage security has become more intensive at international airports, congestion is becoming a more frequent problem.

In the short-term, this will involve making best use of existing facilities and resources, in a secure manner. Long-term, there is an opportunity to readdress the international aviation security situation and develop a unified approach that meets security needs and achieves an agreed balance in operations, cost and service.

In this article, Paul Bloch considers the challenges and some of the options facing the industry from an aviation security perspective.

The scenes at UK airports on August 10th 2006 were a demonstration of the impact that unplanned change can have on an airport operation. However, change is nothing new to a passenger security screening environment: over recent years airports have implemented a series of aviation security regulations. If change is made to an operation without engineering the process, a reduction in throughput and productivity and an increase in passenger congestion and delays can be expected. These effects are experienced at many airports today.

Transport & Logistics Consultancy (T&L) explores a short-term solution to effectively integrating new processes into a passenger security screening operation. It then discusses long-term options to respond to the challenges of the future. The paper applies the industrial engineering principles explored in the article “Optimising passenger security-screening operations” in Journal of Airport Management, Vol. 1 No. 1.

As the aviation industry, airport facilities and passenger expectations evolve, so does the range and use of ground transport services to an airport. The use of available surface access modes determines the pattern of passengers arriving at the airport for their flight departure; a pattern which in turn determines the capacity requirements for the airport departure process.

A shift in the ground transport mix will effectively change the arrival pattern of passengers. T&L discusses the importance of understanding the effect of change in planning future airport capacity.

The factors increasing pressure on airport terminal infrastructures include: the return of passenger numbers to pre-9/11 levels; projected long-term annual growth of 5-6 per cent in passenger traffic; the rapid growth of low-cost airlines; and the imminent arrival of new, larger aircraft. At the same time the struggle for profitability among many of the world’s largest airlines and the growth of low-cost operating models is making it more difficult for airport operators to make aeronautical infrastructure investment decisions.

Where existing facilities are saturated, airports are faced with two options: they can either make better use of existing facilities or build.

The article looks at how production management - the application of industrial engineering principles and production planning and management techniques – can help the airport operator increase the capacity of existing facilities.