Collection and analysis of multi-modal airport land side probe data from Bluetooth enabled mobile devices

The landside arrival experience of passengers begins on the approaching highways and transitions to a variety of other modes such as shuttle buses and walking. Probe data from mobile phones provides an important data source for collecting system performance data that can be used as feedback to improve the management of the various transportation and queuing systems used by airport travelers. This paper reports on a study using Bluetooth sensors to quantitatively evaluate the operations of airport security checkpoints. Bluetooth sensors were deployed at George Bush Intercontinental Airport from 30 August to 13 September, 2010 and collected over 100,000 travel time records between data collection stations located along access roads, parking garages, non-sterile areas of terminals, and sterile areas of terminals. In addition, hourly checkpoint passenger volumes were collected. The large volume of this data necessitated the development of statistical characterization procedures and graphics that characterize both the travel time records and checkpoint information. These checkpoint operations reports provide dashboard level reports useful for management to rapidly assess operations, and identify opportunities for improved allocation of staffing. The paper concludes by providing examples of how the checkpoint operations report concept can be extended to characterize the movement of traffic through the airport, the entire passenger arrival experience, and numerically characterize user delay in person-hours. A final overview procedure using pareto sorting to identify correctable periods where airports have opportunity to improve their utilization is shown.