This book covers the analysis, modelling, planning, and design of airport landside access modes and their systems. It elaborates on the issues and related problems of airport landside accessibility in an innovative, comprehensive and systematic way. In addition to the general concept of accessibility, the book addresses the analysis and modelling of infrastructure-related, technological, operational, economic, social and environmental performance of road- and rail-based transport systems, as well as the core principles of their planning and design. The book provides guidelines on the modelling, planning, and design of airport landside access modes and their systems, which will contribute to the overall sustainable development of airports. Its main features are: presents a multidimensional examination of performance for specific airport landside access modes and their systems; pursues a qualitative and quantitative approach to developing performance indicators for estimating the sustainability of airport landside access modes and their systems; includes illustrative cases of airport landside accessibility, and numerical examples as exercises for assessing performance using the systems’ indicators. As such, the book offers a valuable source of information for all practitioners involved in analysing, planning and designing more environmentally friendly airport access modes and systems, and who want to learn how to overcome the issues and problems surrounding landside accessibility. It will also benefit students studying the analysis and modelling of transportation systems, and researchers seeking to promote improved sustainability at airports.

The purpose of this research was to describe the elements that comprise airport access and develop a methodology for identifying and evaluating existing landside access performance and proposed improvements from a passenger perspective. The scope was limited to landside access service between approaches to the airport and the entrance to the terminal. A literature review and an investigation of Virginia state and metropolitan transportation agencies yielded the evaluation standards, guidelines, and methods currently used to identify and evaluate airport landside access performance and improvements. A national survey of U.S. airports determined the characteristics of the airport access services provided. Based on this information, factors relevant to evaluating landside access were identified. An access evaluation methodology was developed based on performance measures relating to cost, time, reliability, convenience, and quality. This methodology was demonstrated through investigation of landside access facilities at Richmond International Airport. Three conclusions were drawn. First, there is a lack of consistency in measuring airport access performance. Second, landside access to airports is a major concern at airports of all sizes, but there is no significant difference in reported access problems among large, medium, and small airports. Third, the methodology developed may be tailored to meet the needs of a specific airport. The study recommends that the Virginia Department of Transportation and the Virginia Department of Aviation incorporate the evaluation methodology into the access fund appropriations process; encourage Virginia airports to adopt the methodology as a step in the master plan process; and encourage nationwide use of the methodology by airport authorities, state departments of transportation, and the Federal Aviation Administration.

Since the emergence of urban systems, cities have developed in a mutually inter-dependent process of socio-economic dynamics and transportation linkages. In recent years, Airports worldwide have stepped beyond the stage of being pure infrastructure facilities while the complex dynamics that are taking place at and around international airports represent a crucial element in the post-industrial reorganisation of urban and regional systems. Airports are increasingly recognized as general urban activity centres; that is, key assets for cities and regions as economic generators and catalysts of investment in addition to being critical components of efficient city infrastructure. This book brings together contributions from renowned academic scholars and world leading practitioners to discuss insights gained from theory and practice. The first collection of papers reflects upon the general role and future of airports as well as their specific contribution to competitive advantages within a fast changing business and economic landscape. The second group of contributions ask about the role airports play within the innovation process that is inherently centred on generating and sharing knowledge. The third section of papers investigates the drivers of real estate developments on airport land and in the close vicinity of airports.

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Report 52: Wayfinding and Signing Guidelines for Airport Terminals and Landside is designed to provide airports with the tools necessary to help passengers find their way in and around the airport.

This book presents a comprehensive analysis and modelling of demand, capacity, quality of services, economics, and sustainability of the air transport system and its main components - - airports, airlines, and ATC/ATM (Air Traffic Control/Management). Airports consist of the airside and landside area characterized by their capacities for handling demand such as aircraft, air passengers, and air freight/cargo shipments. Regarding spatial configuration, airlines generally operate hub-and-spoke (conventional or legacy airlines) and point-to-point (LCCs - Low Cost Carriers) air route networks. Their fleets consisting of different aircraft types provide transport capacity for serving demand including air passengers and freight/cargo shipments. The ATC/ATM includes the controlled airspace, traffic management and control facilities and equipment on the ground, space, and on board aircraft, and the ATC Controllers). They all provide capacity to handle demand consisting of the flights between origin and destination airports carried out by airline aircraft. The outcome from the interrelationships between demand and capacity at these components materializes as the quality of services. At airports and airlines this is generally expressed by congestion and delays of aircraft, air passengers, and freight/cargo shipments. At ATC/ATM, this is expressed by delays, horizontal and vertical in-efficiency, and safety of flights. Economics of each component relate to its revenues, costs, and profits from handling demand, i.e., providing services of given quality. The sustainability of air transport system has become increasingly important issue for many internal and external actors/stakeholders involved to deal with. This has implied increasing the system’s overall social-economic effects/benefits while reducing or maintaining constant impacts/costs on the environment and society at both global and regional/local scale under conditions of continuous medium- to long term growth.

This synthesis extends previous efforts to document the state of practice for airport ground access mode choice models. It examines the characteristics of existing models and discusses the issues involved in the development and use of such models to improve the understanding and acceptance of their role in airport planning and management. Information presented in this report may be of interest to a range of airport managers, airport and regional transportation planners, consultants and transportation modeling specialists, and researchers interested in issues involving airport ground access mode choice. For this synthesis, a comprehensive review of the relevant literature was undertaken. To document the extent of the recent use of airport ground access mode choice models and to identify sources of technical documentation on existing models, this literature review was supplemented by a survey of airport authorities, metropolitan planning organizations, consulting firms and research organizations, and other government agencies and industry organizations. Follow-up communications by telephone and e-mail were made where necessary.