Managing airport operations using simulation

Airport terminals have dramatically changed after September 11th, primarily due to the tightened security measures. These changes had a major impact on passenger arrival patterns, passenger flows, space allocation, processing times, and waiting times. In turn, it impacted a terminal's performance, levels of service, and the overall passenger experience. Airport planners and decision makers required a decision support tool that can quickly evaluate the impact of the often changing security regulations and the decisions to counterpart these changes on the airport's level of service. The intellectual focus of this paper is to present the methodology and the generic tool that will quantify and assess passenger flow in airport terminal functional areas and relate these requirements to the airport's key performance indicators and level of service.