Modelling Passenger Flow for the new King Abdul-Aziz International Airport - Thesis Example

Passengers' experience is one of the most important aspects that determine the service quality of the airport. In order to improve the passenger's experience, it is worthwhile to investigate the passenger's activities during their airport experience (Adpi 2014). Airports have emerged as a major feature of metropolises. Rising traffic levels at airports have led to scientific methods of investigation to deal with traffic control of pedestrians inside airports. Better pedestrian traffic design inside airports provides for optimal use of available resources and allows for improved deployment of new designs (Parisi, Gilman, & Moldovan 2009).

On the other hand, customer experience facilitated by optimal use of deployed resources allows for greater economic efficiency of new airports. This paper will investigate pedestrian traffic flows inside the newly designed King Abdul-Aziz Airport in Jeddah that is designed to handle around 30 million passengers per year by 2015. Passenger activities at airports are dynamic in nature – passengers may choose a number of options based on personal preferences. This in turn leads to multiple configurations for passenger traffic that must simultaneously cater to myriad problem constraints for providing an optimal passenger experience.

The current research will focus on the major activities alone within the main airport terminal such as checking in, immigration control or Passport Control and police checkpoint passenger flow. Auxiliary passenger activities such as accessing duty-free shops, eateries, and the like are beyond the scope of the current research.Valuable and efficient fatal preparation, design, and process attract substantial research concentration due to the wide variety of possible applications (Parisi, Gilman, & Moldovan 2009).

Haulage engineers, for instance, are paying attention to identifying factors the affect terminal performance and operations to improve its design and offer a more contented yet inexpensively practicable terminal environment. Incurable operators and users on the additional hand wish to recognize the parameters that allow for the most efficient and fast operations. 

Traditionally, these problems have either been addressed either by simple space verses level of service provided chart (Pelechano, Allbeck, & Badler, 2007). Recently automata cellular models have been employed for use. It should be noted that normal pedestrian movement is composed of several complex characteristics of balance and timing. It is widely recognized that human value personal space (Pelechano, Allbeck, & Badler, 2007). The King Abdul-Aziz Airport was initially commissioned in 1981 to handle both local and international traffic (Adpi 2014).

The airport is located at Jeddah, roughly between the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Saudi Arabia’s expansion of air passenger traffic for both local and international air traffic routes has meant that expansion was desirable (adpi 2014). The overarching aim of expansion at the King Abdul-Aziz Airport is to cater to a passenger inflow of 80 million per year (King Abdulaziz International Airport) (The New KAIA Project 2014). The recent spate of expansion at the King Abdul-Aziz Airport has been designed to handle 30 million passengers versus the existing 13 million passengers, half of which are local and the other half-international passengers.

This corresponds to processing 3,800 arriving passengers per hour and 3,500 departing passengers per hour (International Finance Corporation 2013). The King Abdul-Aziz Airport serves as one of the busiest air hubs in the region, especially during the pilgrimage season when passengers to Mecca are received through this airport. Since its inception, the King Abdul-Aziz Airport has had to handle larger passenger volumes for pilgrimage journeys every year (The New KAIA Project 2014). 1.1.2 Existing Airport The existing airport was opened for operation in 1981 replacing the earlier downtown airport.

It has two main commercial terminals that include south terminal, Saudi Domestic International LCC and North Terminal that host Foreign Carriers. Other terminals n the existing airport include Hajj terminal, Royal Terminal, General Aviation terminal and small Air Base. The existing airport is big of around 105 sq km. its design capacity is 7 MAP, throughput 15 MAP (International Finance Corporation 2013). The current quality of services very low though, with the lack of appropriate expansion has meant that existing facilities are overburdened and waiting time has increased due to inefficient processing of passengers the improvement is underway.

Some improvements to the main airport terminal have resulted in faster processing times and lower waiting. King Abdul-Aziz Airport was able to serve 6.2 million pilgrimage passengers in 2010 alone (International Finance Corporation 2013). The next phase of expansion that plans to add a north and south terminal needs to be examined to determine what measure of performance improvement it entails (The New KAIA Project 2014). 1.1.3 New King Abdul-Aziz Airport The task of the novel KAIA plan is to become an international model hub to promote the economic activities of the Country, supporting the national airport transportation system and help in improvement of services as the gateway to the region.

In order to fulfill this mission, airport will provide quality and efficient services to its passengers, the tenants and operators to a well-structured and sound financial and environmentally responsible manner (International Finance Corporation 2013). The new KAIA project will be a landmark economic development not only to the Kingdom but to the region as a whole, capitalizing on the Kingdom Ambitious development plan and the leaders effort for Saudi Arabia to enhance the status of Jeddah as one of the international hub (International Finance Corporation 2013).

The new facility master plan embraces development in three main phases to the year 2035, when the ultimate capacity could reach over 70 -80 million passengers annually (MAP) while still using the existing three runways (Grimm, & Steven 2005). The facility currently follows just in time (JIT) move toward to ensure the correct equilibrium of capability, excellence of the services and cost given that, in consequence, a novel airport fashioned within the existing boundary.