Ground Operations

At airports the gate allocation of aircraft is independent of the runways that are in use at the time of arrival of an aircraft. That may lead to long taxi times and an inefficient use of the available gates. This leads to unnecessary environmental pollution and inefficient turn-around processes. This project investigates gate allocation procedures currently available and determines the effect of flexible gate allocation based on the operational circumstances at specific times. A simulation study will be required.

At airports gates generally have the same “old fashioned” design. In order to speed up the boarding process new boarding strategies have to be developed and technology may be used to ease identification and allow self-boarding of passengers. This research project concerns the analysis of boarding processes, the design of new boarding processes and an analysis of the impact of the application of new technologies on the efficiency and the security of the boarding process.