Impact of Disruptive Scenarios in Passenger Processing at International Airport Terminals: A Simulative Study
- Giovanni Bauder
- Idoaldo Lima
- Giovanna Ronzani
- Johannes Reichmuth
RWTH Aachen University · Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA)
- Event
- XIX SITRAER – São José dos Campos, SP, Brasil, October 25–27, 2022
- Volume
- Proceedings of SITRAER 2022 – Air Transportation Symposium · ISSN 2448-1912
- Pages
- 364–373
- Publisher
- Sociedade Brasileira de Pesquisa em Transporte Aéreo (SBTA)
- Editors
- Giovanna Miceli Ronzani Borille, Rogéria de Arantes Gomes, Evandro José da Silva, Mauro Caetano, Cláudia Azevedo Pereira
Abstract
Fast growing passenger traffic, technology push and security concerns are some of the main challenges in the context of international travel nowadays. Investigating such disruptive scenarios is not only relevant but necessary to handle potential issues that may arise. In this work, our main goal is thus the investigation of the effects of disruptive scenarios in passenger processing systems at international airport terminals in a simulative environment. First, we developed base simulation models in AnyLogic to measure waiting times at both security checkpoints and passport control stations for varying sizes of airport and used flight and share data from different European airports, as well as sensitivity, visualization, and analytical approaches, to verify and validate the models. Then, adapting the simulation models, and corresponding relevant inputs and parameters, we implemented various scenarios of disruptive events, including both non-intrusive technological procedure and system failure at security check, as well as system failure at automated kiosks for passport control. We carried out numerous simulations runs, varying passenger flows and number of processing stations. At a same arrival rate, we found that less than a half of the processing stations are needed for security screening when using technologies like corridors instead of typical gates. In case of a partial system failure, for example, larger sized airports are associated with lower impacts in terms of waiting times. If more personnel are not made available in such an occurrence, however, passenger throughput is expected to drop to a third of its normal operations levels. At emigration, automated kiosks enhance service quality and require less infrastructure and personnel, even during system failures. This comparison between typical operations and disruptive scenarios are particularly important, given that it evidences the impact of new equipment, procedures, and concepts, and enable informed decision making under such circumstances.
Keywords: Disruption; Passenger Processing; Airport Terminal; Simulation