Analysis and simulation of passenger flows in an airport terminal

As human behavior is often thought to be hard to define in models, simulations of processes with people involved are less common than industrial simulations. Nevertheless simulation has been very valuable in passenger logistics to study bottlenecks and test potential solutions. This paper describes a project concerning the analysis and redesign of passenger handling at an airport, in which dynamic modeling played an important role. Simulation has been applied here to gain insights into the relations between the distinguished processes, the presence of bottlenecks and their causes. With the simulation models future situations were represented, through which long-term expectations can be posted. In this way critical aspects in the passenger flow through the airport terminal have been explored and studied. All potential bottlenecks have to be suppressed by apt arrangements. These can consist of an expansion of the availability of resources or floor space, but many times improving the processes can be a more effective or more efficient solution. Several supposed measurements have been tested in a quantitative way, to examine whether they fulfill the expectations, are robust and do not create new problems. The overview of bottlenecks and the comparison of measurements formed the required results of the simulation project. As detailed simulation studies require exact descriptions of processes and representative data, a large amount of information had to be collected and laid down. Process control and management will take advantage of it.