The Emerging Challenges In Airport Management

INTRODUCTION

In order to understand where international air transportation may be heading to long-term, the factors which have driven the growth in air travel in the past and what will those forces look like in the future? The last quarter of the twentieth century has seen gigantic change in the transport sectors of many countries, imposing much dislocation on both people and companies engaged in the provision of transport services. An airport is comprised of a huge variety of facilities, systems, users, workers, rules and regulations. Also, just as cities flourish on trade and commerce with other cities, airports are successful in part by their ability to lucratively be the location where passengers and cargo travel to and from other airports.

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Moreover, just as cities find their place as part of its county’s, states, and country’s economy, airports, too must operate effectively as part of the nation’s system of airports. Many other economic sectors have faced the need for vast adaptation to new trends in the growth of the world economy. These challenges faced by airports are enormous. Airports query in forward way and are described in gathered information.

OVERVIEW:

An assessment of abundant air travel forecasting models indicates the key drivers as GDP and income growth. In a replica an economic recovery will produce a set of world economies which will look much the same as what we saw in 2007-2008, then knowing the expected values and influences of old variables is what is important. Closely linked to these factors are trade growth, Security, congestion in airport and airspace, automation, ground access, CNS/ATM, Environmental constraints and foreign direct investment. Airlines are turning to bigger and larger aircraft, financial constraints, increasing consumer interests are some of the irritants.

Simulation of passenger flow in an airport terminal is also a major problem in an airport. There have been policy changes, including the increasing liberalization of international aviation agreements, the changing business models of carriers, the expansion of alliances and the growth in long haul aircraft fleets.

Influences to be considered in assessing the future of international passenger air travel are those things events, policies and economic and political environment which are new. New forces will be at work in the future that will have an impact on international air travel.

IDENTIFIED CHALLENGES:

AIRLINE MARKETING AND MANAGEMENT

ECONOMIC IMPACT IN PRIVATIZATION

AIRPORT AIRLINE RELATIONS

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

AUTOMATION

CARGO PROBLEMS

AIR TRAFFIC

CAPACITY CONSTRAINTS

AIRPORT-AIRSPACE CONGESTION

SAFETY

NEW LARGE AIRCRAFT

COMPACTING STRATEGIES:

AIRLINE MARKETING AND MANAGEMENT

This has been prepared against a backdrop of what is still an industry facing rapid change and continuing financial problems. We have also seen that in aviation it is a dangerous statement to say that, “Things can’t possibly get any worse”. People were indeed saying this in 2003, when things did get worse with a rapid increase in the price of aviation fuel which has continued up to the present time. The industry has endured turbulent times before – admittedly at a reduced scale compared with today and has come through them. The problem for traditional airlines will be that most of this traffic will be carried by the small number of giant global Integrators rather than by them.

When coming to the property management airport shareholders and owners demands grow, non-aeronautical related income is becoming increasingly important for airports. The marketing environment of the airline industry will certainly remain volatile and difficult. The established trends towards deregulation and liberalization will continue, and, at least towards the end of a ten-year timescale, may encompass the long-overdue changes in ownership and control rules which will allow aviation to finally take its place amongst other global industries. Technology will also affect airlines.

In the future, though the ability to build and maintain strong brands will be a necessary requirement for success. If it is, it will require marketing communication spending which is substantial, well-thought out and seen in a strategic, long-term way rather than as a tactical exercise which can be reduced or ditched as soon as times become difficult. This Airport module helps airports to manage their rental, lease, license and concession related interests. It provides the information you need to make important property related business decisions. An effective tool for quick resolution and management of airport activities. Simple tracking and escalation of tasks to the right people in the airport and Information is provided at the fingertips of the right people within the airport, enabling effective decision making in incident management also solves problem.

AIRPORT PRIVATIZATION:

Airports have been increasingly dependent on the private sector to provide services as a way to reduce costs and improve the quality and the range of services offered. Privatization refers to changing governmental functions and responsibilities, in complete or in part, to the private sector. Most services now performed at large commercial airports, such as airline ticketing, baggage handling, cleaning, retail concessions, and ground transportation, are provided by private firms.

Even after privatization, the airports have remained subject to government regulation of airline access, airport charges to airlines, safety, security, and environmental protection. Privatization advocates believe that private firms would provide additional capital for development; privatized airports would be more profitable because the private sector would operate them more efficiently, and advocates believe that privatization would financially benefit all levels of government by reducing demand on public funds and increasing the tax base. However, the concepts that drive private enterprises toward competitive and efficient operations are becoming embraced by publicly owned and managed airports.

As a result, more efficient executive structures and management responsibilities have resulted in more streamlined and efficient airport management organizational structures which can visualize solutions to future issues and problems and reach the goals.

AIRPORT AIRLINE RELATIONS:

Almost all are owned and operated by state Governments or subdivisions of state governments such as cities, counties, or airport authorities. Unlike railroads, motor freight carriers, and bus lines, which must own, their terminals, the airlines do not own the airports. This has the advantage of holding down the capital investment necessary to operate, but the disadvantage that the airlines must cope with the policies, practices, And charges of hundreds of separate airport-operating entities. The airlines, which are properly merely tenants at the airport, thus become enmeshed in the financial problems of the airport. Another matter of concern to the airlines is airport capacity.

Deregulation, stimulated a trend toward smaller aircraft which increased the number of flights needed to serve a given number of passengers. Deregulation has also tended to encourage hub-and-spoke operations, as mentioned earlier, where a carrier selects an airport as a hub and tries to time a number of inbound flights to feed traffic to an outbound flight.

Aggravating these factors, the long-term growth of traffic continues. The airline tends to blame the government for the problem of congestion and delays at the busiest airports, alleging that the air traffic control system, which is operated by the FAA, has lagged in introducing the most modern technology, and that there has been insufficient funding for needed airport improvements.

As these factors will be seen from the foregoing, airport economics and airline economics are closely intertwined. As these problem areas demonstrate, airline economics is closely interrelated not only with other parts of the economic system but also very much with the social, technological, and political arenas. The problems are many and severe, but challenging.

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES:

Airplanes, a source of carbon dioxide emissions, are poised to become a major factor in global warming in the future, according to new predictions. These types of airport problem in which airlines are deeply involved come under the general heading of environmental interactions. An airport can cause noise, air, and water pollution, as well as automobile traffic congestion.

Environmentalists will insist, with some logic, that the true costs of an airport should include the social costs of such pollution and congestion-that is, the losses to society in its quality of living. Noise problems due to aircraft operations are the most serious of the environmental charges against the airports and in many ways the hardest to resolve. In a few instances it has been possible to acquire huge tracts of land around the airport so that the aircraft flight paths are over airport property when they are at low levels.

Proposals have been made to locate new airports at sea or, for Chicago and other lake ports, out in the lakes. So many large U.S. cities are located on the oceans or the Great Lakes that such projects are at least Conceivable for the next century, although they would present their own technological and environmental difficulties. The noise problem has also been tackled by finding ways to make aircraft engines quieter.

AUTOMATION:

Another important input that promotes the airport access is the automation. Advancement information communication technology (ICT) has eased much of the pressure from airport operations. As airport operations, you need to focus more on integrating the ICT applications to improve key functional departments and personnel within the airport to access critical airport information in support of resources management, engineering and maintenance, financial management, operations and all decision support activities. Managing an airport’s revenue stream can be a complex and difficult task.

The Airport Billing Module is designed to vastly simplify the collation and billing of all your flight and non-flight related revenue. The system is completely flexible to your specific business requirements while maintaining billing integrity and ease of use. Its primary focus is on improved operational efficiency and charge flexibility makes it an affordable solution, minimizing your costs whilst maximizing your revenue options. Reporting is made simple with the ability to derive accurate financial, operational and executive Key Performance Indicators.

Automation related incidents are common knowledge because of their increasing frequency of occurrence. Data- entry errors, monitoring failures, system workarounds and mode misapplication which fault rarely occur in isolation or without contributing factors. Some of the solutions for the issues are awareness, training, by standard operating procedure and crew coordination .in which mode awareness, situational awareness, system awareness, and increased heads-down time which are the conditions that may lead to unsafe conditions in advanced-technology air-craft.

CARGO PROBLEMS:

Certain problems in the air cargo field deserve special notice, such as inflation, multilateral cargo agreements, and the impact of trade agreements, fuel policy, hazardous cargo, and cargo alliances.

These seem to be inherent in the air cargo business. Among these are directional imbalance, the absence of new dedicated freighter aircraft, airport noise regulations, and the dependence in many domestic markets on belly cargo and thus on schedules tailored to please passengers. Despite these chronic problems, air freight continues to grow, and small-package traffic continues to grow rapidly.

AIR TRAFFIC:

Most airports around the world today are facing a crisis due to an exponential increase in air traffic. The modeling software ARENA developed by Rockwell Automation is made use of in simulating the complete flow of passengers for typical mid-sized airport during the domestic arrival, departure, and also during international arrival and departure for a flight. Arena basically helps in streamlining and optimizing all the passenger related processes at the airport. It helps reducing passenger processing times, and the number of passengers who miss their flight due to lack of time.

The four major controller classifications at control towers: Flight Data Controller, Clearance Delivery Controller Ground Controller and Local Controller which of these positions has specific duties. Not only airlines/airports contributions by way of passenger and freight activities, and the increasing number of aircraft movements are vital input to national economy.

The need for change in the current CNS/ATM is due to two principal factors: Due to inherent limitations in the current system, it will not be able to cope-up with the growing demand of air traffic; and the need for global consistency in the providing air traffic services (ATS) while progressing towards a seamless CNS/ATM system. A Communications, Navigation, and Surveillance/ Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) master plan is a plan for a needs-driven, economically justified, evolutionary system and modernization. The Plan must: (1) sustain systems necessary to maintain existing level of service; introduce new operational procedures, technologies, and mechanization concepts necessary to meet user and operator needs; and introduce appropriate program management structures for successful accomplishment of the Plan

Required Total System Performance (RTSP) concept, Required Communication Performance (RCP) concept, Required Navigation Performance (RNP) concept, Required Surveillance Performance (RSP) Concept, Free Flight/Autonomous are new emerging concepts may prove as performance measurement gauge for CNS /ATM in order to avoid any sort of problems in the systems.

When air traffic vs. GDP the air transportation industry is therefore, highly susceptible to economic cycles and fluctuations in fuel prices. Globally, the share of raw material moving between regions has declined, while the Share of cross-moments has increased. As we are facing many challenges in order to meet the world trade amounting in which 35% of international trade moves by air as per report in 2008 ,40%of trade over some 3.5 $ trillion in value. Air transport, therefore, drives economic and social progress. In most developing countries, the demand for freight and passenger traffic is growing faster than population and GDP growth rate.

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CAPACITY CONSTRAINTS:

Capacity constraints include not only limited physical infrastructure like Runways and terminals but also administrative limitations like night curfews, noise & emission budgets or noise & release limits, which all restrict the overall level of air travel demand an airport is potentially able to serve. However, airport choice varies considerably when travelers are faced with capacity constraints, and thus depends on the gap between demand potential of an airport and the demand at capacity level. Thus it would seem appropriate to incorporate the impact of capacity constraints in a systematic and coherent way when planning studies on future airport choice.

Due to impact of the capacity constraints on airport choice the expansion by Redistribution of demand among neighboring airports restricted growth of local demand Airport capacity expansion takes place. Whether airport capacity is expandable or not within a comparatively

Short time horizon depends on several factors, including geographical,

Political, ecological and economical variables. These factors differ from

Airport to airport. There will be a need for the state to strike the right balance between intended commitments and airport infrastructure. As air services agreements with multiple description and gradual removal of capacity restriction have enabled increases in number of air carries and air services, thereby putting supplementary pressure on existing airport capacity and it would continue to challenge the air ports.

AIRPORT-AIRSPACE CONGESTION

Congestion at airports effect air traffic in airports and strand passengers. The growing of congestion at international airport is a serious issue whose resolution is primarily a question of determination and is not a technical problem and the current situation is choking growth rates in the industry. As our inflexible India has been facing many issues in this congestion immediate action is required.

Due to Increased airspace congestion, airport delays and noise are concerns. It has been suggested that a runaway should be built to ease congestion as well as to fend off competition in the airports and manage the runways in a proper way. The premise that some amount of congestion and delay is not inconsistent with efficient and within your means air transportation. Due to this airport congestion and fuel compel reasons, both Boeing and airbus aircraft manufactures companies are introducing new large aircrafts.

SAFETY

Safety has always been an integral part of an air carrier’s mission. One of the most significant issues facing airports in the early twenty-first century is that of airport security. Most users of commercial service airports are subjected to security infrastructure, policies, and procedures within the airport terminal area. By introducing some programs like BASIS program which is an excellent model of risk-management feedback. It was designed and developed by safety professionals to provide support in capturing, investigating, and analyzing safety data from incidents and accident.

Global Safety Data Management, through its valuable sources of safety information (e.g. IOSA), IATA can: Break down silos in safety data Management and analysis and obtain a complete picture, determine & prioritize safety concerns for the industry. And Develop solutions to address issues. At most commercial service airports, controlled access through doors that provide access to the AOA, secure areas, sterile areas, and other areas within the SIDA, as well as many employee-only restricted areas, is enforced by the use of control systems. These systems range from simple key locks to smart-access technologies, such as keypad entry systems requiring proper pass code.

Sophisticated recognition verification technologies, including those that employ biometrics, are continuously being developed to enhance access control at airports. Various lighting systems , safeguards, fencing 10 to 20 feet inside the property line and barriers to preclude unauthorized access into the area, which may include Aircraft with unusual or unauthorized modifications can help in prospect. Further development of advanced biometric and information technologies, are expected to provide a contribution to enriching airport security, with the goal of proactively mitigating any future threats to the aviation system while preserving the efficiency of the system itself.

Protecting against unknown future threats is an imperfect science, and as such, the future of airport security will always be an unknown entity. Concerns for the safe, secure, and efficient travel of passengers and cargo domestically and internationally will always be a top priority for the civil aviation system, and it can be assured that efforts to make the system as secure as possible will continue to be held in top priority, by all levels of government.

NEW LARGE AIRCRAFT (NLA)

Numerous key design and operational characteristics of proposed NLA which should need to be taken into contemplation before such aircraft are introduced into the current airport environment. It is anticipated that the development of NLA will continue in the future, bringing newer, larger transport aircraft. We face impact on airport design i.e. on air side and land side which may fall in to many issues in the airport.

In an air side it might involve current landside design concepts. With their larger passenger capacity, NLA will affect numerous landside issues such as baggage handling, ticket counters, passenger lounges and cueing areas, parking, terminal design, airport capacity, gate compatibility, and various other items. Airports and their surrounding communities are expressing concerns about how the operations of NLA are going to affect the environment.

Aircraft manufacturers are well aware of these concerns and are designing NLA to be compatible with today’s noise and emission restrictions. Involving a NLA include the effects of jet blast, turning radius, and bypass taxiing capabilities and NLA should not obstruct other passing aircraft or cause delays in traffic flow. Specific elements of airport planning and design that may be affected by these changes in aircraft characteristics have been identified to assist airport planners and the FAA in preparing for the NLA’s arrival which includes signs and marketing’s in the prospect.

CONCLUSION:

The problems are many and severe, but challenging. These studies have also investigated how such taxes or trading schemes may impact the structure of the networks and perhaps the industry itself. The future is unlikely to see greater stability in airline pricing structures. Other new forces will be technology, such as improved engine fuel economy, bio-fuels, improved air traffic control, country specific taxes, industry consolidation, and the influence all of these would have on fares and service as well as network reach and design.

As these problem areas demonstrate, airline economics is closely interrelated not only with other parts of the economic system but also very much with the social, technological, and political arenas. All in all, the future will be an exciting and challenging one. It must continue to retain the courage of its convictions and pursue liberalization of international aviation market. Working in the airline industry will be stressful – dealing with an accelerating pace of change always is – but it will provide tremendous opportunities for those privileged to make their living from this still dynamic and fascinating industry.