Airport queues: planning, planning, planning…

< back

13th November 2014

The foundation and basis for passenger flow through the airport and resulting queues is of course planning.  Are you the type of manager that takes an active interest in this role or do you wait until things start to go wrong and issues are highlighted to you?

Planning is a not a static activity, it’s not one that you can ever really put a tick in the box against to say “complete”.  Planning should be an iterative and fluid activity.  Iterative in that you are always monitoring the results of a forecast against reality and making adjustments as required.  Fluid in that the long term plans feed into medium term, daily and real-time planning decisions and the plans are interactive between processing points in the airport.

Many international airports have realised the importance of a holistic approach to planning and have introduced a centralised operations planning centre.

 

Current Data

Many airports use complex planning tools to perform much of their long-term and day-to-day planning requirements. However the output of such tools can only be as good as the information going into them – out-of-date data will produce an inaccurate plan. The results: queues, congestion and dissatisfied customers or an oversupply of resources and unnecessary spend.

When was the last time you updated the variables that drive your airport operations planning? Do you routinely refresh your data in the event of operational change? Maintaining a current database may create additional work but it does mean you are better prepared to ensure that your supply matches demand, to meet customer expectations, and use resources more efficiently.

Are you still measuring the right thing?  Do you capture all the paths passengers can take through the airport?  Are you using outdated technology which limits the sample size?

 

Forecasting & Planning

Forecasting

Are you confident your forecasts are still accurate? Take a look at the forecasts you are using and the actual data for the same period. What is the variation? Is the discrepancy greater than you expected?

 

Demand-driven planning

Blog 2 of this series challenged how well an airport understands demand patterns. To what level of detail do you break down demand? What time increments do you plan with? Have you mapped your current facility plan against demand profiles? Have you plotted queues against these?

With a fact-based, scientific approach to planning, it is possible to predict how demand will build up, pre-empt queues and allocate resources accordingly.

 

Integrated planning

Bring together your knowledge of arrival patterns, transaction times, process and trends for individual airport functions to develop a complete picture of arrival and departure flows. How does the take-up of available check-in modes affect demand for passenger screening facilities and subsequently boarding gates? How does stand planning impact immigration queues? Do you plan and allocate baggage reclaims based on the output from immigration?

By looking at the passenger journey through the airport as an integrated flow and planning end-to-end processes rather than each production area in isolation, you will be in a better position to manage facilities and resources efficiently and be in better control of queues.

 

Flexible planning

Of course, there is always a need for flexibility.  No airport can be confident that its operation consistently functions as planned. How does your operations team prepare to be flexible? Are you set up to get immediate feedback on how your operation is performing at present?

What measurement mechanisms (real time throughput counts, queue measurement, customer feedback…) do you have in place that you can refer to throughout the day? Does your operations team refer to these routinely? How responsive are they?  Do you know how effective customer service staff are by placement location?  For example, does placing staff at the preparation zone for security still have a positive effect on the number of undeclared items left in hand luggage?  Are passengers better prepared with staff located there or not?

With a range of mechanisms in place, a flexible team and a proactive, structured approach, it is possible to understand when an operation is not functioning as expected and quickly respond appropriately. This can prevent what may be a short-term performance deficit developing into queuing issues.

 

Contingency planning

Similarly it is important to be flexible and well-prepared for contingency situations. Whilst passenger demand is typically predictable, there is potential for the unpredictable to happen which the airport operation has to quickly respond to; public transport delays, motorway incidents, ATC delays or strikes, security alerts …

How detailed are your contingency plans? Do you and your team have confidence in these plans? Are they well communicated across the airport community?

Current, detailed contingency plans with fall back options and ensuring your team is well aware of these plans and their role are critical to effectively managing a bad situation.

 

Planned queues

Finally, your airport does not have to be a completely queue-less airport, just make sure they are planned queues!

With robust and up-to-date plans and processes, you can plan to have short, managed queues, with minimal passenger waiting time, that are used effectively to inform and prepare passengers for the process ahead.

 

If you have any questions about planning and process solutions for your airport queues before the busy Christmas travel period starts, please contact fionarees@oandiconsulting.com.

Categories: Blogs, Operations Improvement, Operations Planning

Tags: airport queues, airport security, baggage reclaim, Check-in, customer service, efficiency, forecasting, operations design, Operations Improvement, Operations planning, passenger security, planning, queues