MANAGING PASSENGER QUEUES TO MEET DEMAND AND CAPACITY AT OR TAMBO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Abstract

The growing congestion and waiting experience of passengers at airports enforces airport management to find ways of upgrading the airport environment and find analytical and simulation models that will predict a variety of measures in relation to the nature of waiting times with a differing number of servers. These models can be used to optimize the balance between demand and service available in terms of appropriate objectives for specific systems. The accurate modelling of the arrival and departures process will enable a simulation analysis of the capacities of high peak check points. The passenger airport processes service systems in which passenger arrival rates vary over time and the service rate also vary among operators or staff. As the result, the varying passenger arrival and service rate, the need arises to match capacities with demand so that the passengers experience an acceptable service level. Matching capacity with demand also prevents overstaffing of personnel. Scenarios evaluated included the changing of the queue structure. Preliminary QTS experiments indicated that when more passengers arrive, others passengers are processed. In other words, service rate is reciprocal. The core of this project is to minimise waiting time within the resource available of the provision of service. Consequently, the mismatch between the demand and capacity has impact on policy discussion (Service Level Agreement) that brings into the forefront challenging dilemmas for decision-makers. The expansion of capacity and the handling of demand through time and space allocation are considered as the technological impact that can alleviate volatile situations and enhance supply and demand. As a result, demand management strategies gain increasing acceptance as a potential vehicle of handling demand by limiting some demand for access to busy airfields, and by modifying the spatial and temporal distribution of demand