Benchmarking Airport Productivity

and the Role of Capacity Utilization –

A Study of selected European
Airports

Branko Bubalo GAP Project

Berlin, July 2009
 Contents
• Introduction
• Why Airport „Benchmarking“?
• Understanding the System
• Models and Guidelines
• Static Analysis
• Dynamic Analysis
• Conclusion

• “Airport capacity cannot be conjured up overnight. This is about

looking at the long term, beyond the present crisis. Given the
seriousness of the capacity crunch we are facing, this means not
only looking into optimizing existing infrastructure, but also allowing
the development of new infrastructure where needed.” Olivier Jankovec,
Director General ACI EUROPE November 2008
 Introduction
• Despite „financial crisis“ and other
„threats“ to air transportation, air
traffic is expected to grow
continiously globally and in
Europe
• Demand grows stronger than
airport capacities
• „Capacity Crunch“ possible in the
next couple of years – gridlocking
parts of the European air system

• European Air Traffic is projected to

grow at 4% average per year over
the next decade (2010-2020) and
is about to double by 2025.
• “unaccommodated demand in
2025 […] could cost the European
economy €90bn/year.” ACI-Europe
Oktober 2008
 Introduction
• European Hubs are among the most important connections for the
global air transport system, but also among the most congested
airports.

LHR

CDG
FRA
 Why Airport Benchmarking?
• Finding the „best-in-class“ based on performance and
efficiency
• Giving answers to private owners, stock market,
governments, users and regulators

• Dilemma: How to compare „like with like“ in cross

country comparison?

• Problematic for prices, accounting standards, services

provided, labor contracted out, future or realized
investment plans, service quality. (Forsyth 2004)
 Understanding the System
Idea:
• Develop a productivity benchmark indicator based on
operations/flights taking capacity utilization into account.
• ->Delay per aircraft seems adequate, but hard to predict
• Throughput measures like arrivals, departures or total
flights per hour per runway or airport, which are
generated from real world daily flight schedules, should
be used.
• Aircraft mix and runway configuration should be taken
into account.
• Reduction of complexity to a minimum and development
of peer groups or categories.

• Find basis for evaluating (peak) charges schemes, PAX

numbers, forecasts, ground handling staff planning,
investments and slot trading.
Understanding the System
 Drawbacks of Productivity
Benchmarking Studies
• Econometric productivity models widely used – DEA,
SFA, TFP
• Also key performance indicators (KPI) - Partial
Productivity, TQM, Balanced Scorecard

• Lack of standardisation of Input/Output combination for

econometric and linear programming calculations
• Underestimation of dynamics at an airport, therefore lack
of „systematic“ approach
• more „microscopic“ details needed on a day-to-day or
even hourly basis
 Relationship between hourly
Capacity, Demand and Delay
• Delays per aircraft increase
disproportionally, the closer
demand approaches Ultimate or
Practical (hourly) Capacity
• A Practical Capacity, lower than the
Ultimate Capacity, with regard to an
acceptable level of delay (e.g. 4
Minutes per aircraft), is used in
practice.
• Delay per aircraft would fit as a
reasonable indicator for level of
congestion of an airport, but not
easy to calculate ->Simulation
• Rule-of-Thumb: Practical
Capacity=80% of Ultimate Capacity
Figure 4. ASV and Hourly Capacity by Runway-use Configuration and Groups (Source: Bubalo 2009 from FAA (1983)).
 MI=81-120 MI=>121
Group Subgroup Runway Config No ASV IFR Hourly Capacity ASV IFR Hourly Capacity Best-in-class MDRC Airport
I a 1 210,000 53 240,000 50 50 STN
I b 9 225,000 59 265,000 60 52 CGN
I b 14 225,000 69 265,000 60 66 VIE
I b 15 225,000 69 265,000 60
II a 2 285,000 59 340,000 60 61 MAN
II a 10 285,000 59 340,000 60 66 ZRH
II a 17 285,000 59 340,000 60
II b 13 295,000 59 350,000 60
II c 16 300,000 59 355,000 60 82 FRA
II c 18 300,000 59 355,000 60
II c 19 300,000 59 355,000 60
II d 3 300,000 70 365,000 75 70 MXP
II d 11 300,000 70 365,000 75
II e 4 315,000 105 370,000 99 88 LHR
II e 12 315,000 105 370,000 99 90 FCO
III a 5 310,000 70 375,000 75
III b 6 315,000 70 385,000 75
III c 7 510,000 117 645,000 120
III d 8 565,000 117 675,000 120 106 CDG
 Runway Capacity Envelope for FRA Airport
on Busy Day June 26, 2008

50

45

40

Departures in Ops per hour

35
FRA Capacity Envelope per Hour on PDTHUW26 2009
30

25
60
20

50 15

10
Departures in Ops per hour

40
5

0
30 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
Arrivals in Ops per hour

20

10
Scheduled Flights Actual flights

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Arrivals in Ops per hour
 Main Workpackages for Thesis
• Static Benchmarking of 60 European airports, of different
size, chosen randomly, but partly based on
interconnectivity and importance for the Air Transport
Network representing 50% of overall European traffic.

• Dynamic Benchmarking using simulation software to

gain insight into runway, gate, taxiway and apron
operations at development of queues and delays at 18
single runway airports.

• At a later stage, simulation of more complex airports,

with BRU, LHR, Berlin-Brandenburg International (BBI)
and FRA.
 Demand Profiles for Estimation of
Daily and hourly Productivity
Weekdays Operations Pattern and Capacities
(Sample Week Mon 03/16/2009 - Fri 03/20/2009)

140
• Which airport is most
120

100
„productive“?
• Most important output is
Ops per hour

80

60
„flights per hour“!
• PAX not directly under
40

20

0
00-01 01-02 02-03 03-04 04-05 05-06 06-07 07-08 08-09 09-10 10-11 11-12 12-13 13-14 14-15 15-16 16-17 17-18 18-19 19-20 20-21 21-22 22-23 23-24
managerial control, depends
FRA_2009-03-16_TOT FRA_2009-03-17_TOT
Time

FRA_2009-03-18_TOT
on aircraft size chosen by Weekdays Operations Pattern and Capacities
(Sample Week Mon 03/16/2009 - Fri 03/20/2009)

airline
FRA_2009-03-19_TOT FRA_2009-03-20_TOT maximum declared capacity of all sources
FRA technical capacity vfr FRA technical capacity ifr peak_day_2008_total
Slot coordination total min Slot coordination total max 200

Weekdays Operations Pattern and Capacities 180

(Sample Week Mon 03/16/2009 - Fri 03/20/2009)
160
120

140
100
Ops per hour

120

80 100
Ops per hour

80
60

60
40
40

20 20

0
0
00-01 01-02 02-03 03-04 04-05 05-06 06-07 07-08 08-09 09-10 10-11 11-12 12-13 13-14 14-15 15-16 16-17 17-18 18-19 19-20 20-21 21-22 22-23 23-24
00-01 01-02 02-03 03-04 04-05 05-06 06-07 07-08 08-09 09-10 10-11 11-12 12-13 13-14 14-15 15-16 16-17 17-18 18-19 19-20 20-21 21-22 22-23 23-24

Time Time

LHR_2009-03-16_TOT LHR_2009-03-17_TOT LHR_2009-03-18_TOT CDG_2009-03-16_TOT CDG_2009-03-17_TOT CDG_2009-03-18_TOT

LHR_2009-03-19_TOT LHR_2009-03-20_TOT maximum declared capacity of all sources CDG_2009-03-19_TOT CDG_2009-03-20_TOT maximum declared capacity of all sources
LHR technical capacity vfr LHR technical capacity ifr peak_day_2008_total CDG technical capacity vfr CDG technical capacity ifr peak_day_2008_total
tot_slots
 Models and Guidelines
• IATA „Airport Capacity/Demand Management“ 1981
• IATA „Airport Development Reference Manual“ 1995 & 2004
• ICAO Annex 14 „Aerodromes“ 2004
• ICAO „Aerodrome Design Manual“ 1985 and „Airport Planning Manual“
1987
• FAA AC 150/5060-5 „Airport Capacity and Delay“ 1983/1995
• FAA SIMMOD airport and airspace SIMulation and MODeller, around
1990

• Eugene .P. Gilbo: "Optimizing airport capacity utilization in air traffic flow
management […]“ 1993 & “Airport capacity: representation, estimation,
optimization” 1997
• Milan Janic: “The Sustainability of Air Transportation” 2007
• Adib Kanafani: “The Consistency of Traffic Forecasts for Airport Master
Planning” 1981
 Static Analysis: Data Sources
• OAG flight schedule data, for daily demand profile at airports and
aircraft mix on typical busy day and later SIMMOD
• Flightstats flight schedule data, for daily demand on peak days and
actual flight times
• Airport charts for runway, taxiway and apron system configuration and
number of parking positions, needed for ultimate capacity of airfield
• Google Earth (GE) for airport coordinates
• IATA Airport Capacity and Demand Profiles 2003 for maximum
declared runway and terminal capacities
• National Airport Coordinators for most recent slots per hour or
maximum declared capacity, respectively, though slot distribution may
vary over the day.
BEG Nikola Tesla
Airport Diagram
 BEG Demand Diagram
Weekdays Operations Pattern and Capacities
(Sample Week Mon 03/16/2009 - Fri 03/20/2009)

60

50

40
Ops per hour

30

20

10

0
00-01 01-02 02-03 03-04 04-05 05-06 06-07 07-08 08-09 09-10 10-11 11-12 12-13 13-14 14-15 15-16 16-17 17-18 18-19 19-20 20-21 21-22 22-23 23-24

Time

BEG_2009-03-16_TOT BEG_2009-03-17_TOT BEG_2009-03-18_TOT

BEG_2009-03-19_TOT BEG_2009-03-20_TOT maximum declared capacity of all sources

BEG technical capacity vfr BEG technical capacity ifr

BEG Assumption Rectangle
Assumption Rectangle and Capacities of BEG Airport Traffic for the year 2008

Annual Operations (AO)= 44454 n= 60 PAX/Ops Annual Passengers (AP)= 2650048

y= 0.02025% x= 0.04653%

Hourly Operations (HO)= 9 m= 137 PAX/Ops Hourly Passengers (HP)= 1233

hourly annually
Maximum Declared Capacity= 0 Max Decl. Terminal Capacity= 2327 5000000
(AP/MCTC)
Runway Utilization (HO/MCD)= Terminal Utilzation (HP/MCTC)= 53% 53%

Runway Capacity Terminal Capacity

10 2500
9
Operations per hour

8 2000

PAX per hour

7
6 1500
5
4 1000
3
2 500
1
0
0

y=HO/AO Max decl terminal cap PAX/hr Max decl terminal cap PAX/hr HP in PAX/hr
Where does BEG fit into?
Rwy Annual Demand
config. no. of VFR Annual Service Ops *2007 Annual Demand/
Rank Airport Group no. rwy Mix Index % ops/hr IFR ops/hr Volume (ASV) EUROSTAT ASV
1 VIE 1 14 2 109 77 59 225,000 251,216 111.7%
2 STN 1 1 1 102 55 53 210,000 191,520 91.2%
3 DUB 1 14 3 108 77 59 225,000 200,891 89.3%
4 PRG 1 9 2 102 76 59 225,000 164,055 72.9%
5 LIS 1 1 2 117 55 53 210,000 141,905 67.6%
6 HAM 1 9 2 106 76 59 225,000 151,752 67.4%
7 STR 1 1 1 101 55 53 210,000 139,757 66.6%
8 WAW 1 9 2 103 76 59 225,000 147,985 65.8%
9 CGN 1 9 2.5 104 76 59 225,000 138,528 61.6%
10 EDI 1 14 2 100 77 59 225,000 115,177 51.2%
11 BHX 1 1 1 104 55 53 210,000 104,480 49.8%
12 GLA 1 1 1.5 101 55 53 210,000 93,654 44.6%
13 LTN 1 1 1 102 55 53 210,000 83,318 39.7%
14 LCY 1 1 1 100 55 53 210,000 77,274 36.8%
15 NUE 1 1 1 108 55 53 210,000 57,922 27.6%
16 SXF 1 1 1 100 55 53 210,000 55,114 26.2%
17 CIA 1 1 1 100 55 53 210,000 54,870 26.1%
18 BEG 1 1 1 100 55 53 210,000 44,454 21.2%
19 LBA 1 1 1 97 55 53 210,000 39,603 18.9%
20 RHO 1 1 1 100 55 53 210,000 32,776 15.6%
21 HHN 1 1 1 128 51 50 240,000 34,311 14.3%
22 DRS 1 1 1 100 55 53 210,000 28,257 13.5%
23 BSL 1 9 2 102 76 59 225,000 27,879 12.4%
24 FMO 1 1 0.5 100 55 53 210,000 21,968 10.5%
25 SZG 1 1 1 100 55 53 210,000 21,166 10.1%
26 ZAG 1 1 1 100 55 53 210,000 20,442 9.7%
27 RTM 1 1 1 100 55 53 210,000 18,517 8.8%
28 WRO 1 1 1 100 55 53 210,000 17,861 8.5%
29 GRZ 1 1 1 100 55 53 210,000 17,286 8.2%
30 SCN 1 1 1 100 55 53 210,000 9,731 4.6%
Groups of Runway Systems
Rwy Annual Demand
config. no. of VFR Annual Service Ops *2007 Annual Demand/
Rank Airport Group no. rwy Mix Index % ops/hr IFR ops/hr Volume (ASV) EUROSTAT ASV
1 CDG 3 8 4 140 189 120 675,000 569,281 84.3%
2 MAD 3 8 4 118 210 117 565,000 470,315 83.2%
3 AMS 3 4+9 5.5 136 175 159 635,000 443,677 69.9%
1 FRA 2 16 3 149 129 60 355,000 486,195 137.0%
2 MUC 2 4 2 112 111 105 315,000 409,654 130.0%
3 LHR 2 4 2 170 103 99 370,000 475,786 128.6%
4 BCN 2 12 3 103 111 105 315,000 339,020 107.6%
5 FCO 2 12 3 114 111 105 315,000 328,213 104.2%
6 LGW 2 2 2 118 105 59 285,000 258,917 90.8%
7 CPH 2 12 2.5 109 111 105 315,000 250,170 79.4%
8 DUS 2 2 2 107 105 59 285,000 223,410 78.4%
9 ORY 2 12 2.5 112 111 105 315,000 238,384 75.7%
10 MAN 2 2 2 116 105 59 285,000 206,498 72.5%
11 OSL 2 4 2 101 111 105 315,000 226,221 71.8%
12 MXP 2 3 2 122 103 75 365,000 257,361 70.5%
13 IST 2 16 3 117 146 59 300,000 206,188 68.7%
14 NCE 2 2 2 55 121 56 260,000 173,584 66.8%
15 ZRH 2 10 3 121 94 60 340,000 223,707 65.8%
16 ARN 2 12 3 106 111 105 315,000 205,251 65.2%
17 BRU 2 12 3 123 103 99 370,000 240,341 65.0%
18 BBI 2 4 2 105 111 105 315,000 200,565 63.7%
19 ATH 2 4 2 110 111 105 315,000 193,123 61.3%
20 PMI 2 4 2 100 111 105 315,000 184,605 58.6%
21 HEL 2 12 3 107 111 105 315,000 174,751 55.5%
22 TXL 2 2 2 107 105 59 285,000 145,451 51.0%
23 LYS 2 2 2 102 105 59 285,000 132,076 46.3%
24 HAJ 2 4 2.5 100 111 105 315,000 70,481 22.4%
25 PSA 2 2 2 103 105 59 285,000 38,525 13.5%
26 LEJ 2 4 2 121 103 99 370,000 41,370 11.2%
27 LGG 2 2 2 237 94 60 340,000 26,815 7.9%
 BEG Results from SIMMOD
BEG Flights and Delays per Flight from SIMMOD
(Flightplan OAG Thu 03/19/2009)
5 60

50
4
Delay in min per flight

40
3

Ops per hour

30

2
20

1
10

0 0
0-1 1-2 2-3 3-4 4-5 5-6 6-7 7-8 8-9 9-10 10-11 11-12 12-13 13-14 14-15 15-16 16-17 17-18 18-19 19-20 20-21 21-22 22-23 23-24
Time

DEP delay min per flight BEG DEP delay min per flight BEG 100 DEP delay min per flight BEG 200 Total Ops BEG

Total Ops BEG 100 Total Ops BEG 200 Tech. IFR Cap. Max. Delay per Flight
 Static Analysis Results
• Having more insight into airport activities will bring better
answers and will deliver better indicators for productivity
benchmarks.
• Throuput measures seem adequate since they cover
productivity, efficiency and service quality (e.g. PAX/hr
per check-in-counter, Aircraft/hr per parking position)
-> more research needed!
 CDG Capacity and Demand
Demand Diagram for CDG airport on PDTHUW26 2009

130 17
120 16
15
110 14

Avg. Delays per Scheduled Flight

100 13 CDG Capacity Envelope per
12 Hour on PDTHUW26 2009
90
11
80
Ops per hour

in Minutes
10 70
70 9
60

Departures in Ops per hour

60 8
7 50
50
6 40
40 5
4 30
30
20 3 20
Scheduled Flights
2 Actual flights
10 10
1
0 0 0
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Arrivals in Ops per hour
Time of Day
Average Delays in Minutes per Scheduled Flight Scheduled Arrivals CDG 2009-06-25
Scheduled Departures CDG 2009-06-25 Total Scheduled Flights
Actual Arrivals CDG 2009-06-25 Actual Departures CDG 2009-06-25
Total Actual Flights Maximum Declared Runway Capacity
Maximum IFR Capacity
 LHR Capacity and Demand
Demand Diagram for LHR airport on PDTHUW26 2009

110 25
100
90

Avg. Delays per Scheduled Flight in

20
80
70 LHR Capacity Envelope per Hour on
Ops per hour

15 PDTHUW26 2009
60

Minutes
60
50

Departures in Ops per hour

50
10
40
40
30
30
20 5
20
10 Scheduled Flights
10 Actual flights
0 0
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Time of Day
Arrivals in Ops per hour

Average Delays in Minutes per Scheduled Flight
Scheduled Departures LHR 2009-06-25
Actual Arrivals LHR 2009-06-25
Total Actual Flights
Maximum IFR Capacity
Scheduled Arrivals LHR 2009-06-25
Total Scheduled Flights
Actual Departures LHR 2009-06-25
Maximum Declared Runway Capacity
 FRA Capacity and Demand
Demand Diagram for FRA airport on PDTHUW26 2009

100 30

90
25

Avg. Delays per Scheduled Flight

80
FRA Capacity Envelope per
70
20 Hour on PDTHUW26 2009
Ops per hour

60

50 15 60

Departures in Ops per hour

40 50
10 40
30
30
20
5 20 Scheduled Flights
10 Actual flights
10
0 0 0
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Time of Day Arrivals in Ops per hour
Average Delays in Minutes per Scheduled Flight Scheduled Arrivals FRA 2009-06-25
Scheduled Departures FRA 2009-06-25 Total Scheduled Flights
Actual Arrivals FRA 2009-06-25 Actual Departures FRA 2009-06-25
Total Actual Flights Maximum Declared Runway Capacity
Maximum IFR Capacity
 Conversion to approximate Seat and
PAX Distribution for Terminal Utilization
• Operations per FRA Demand Diagram for Seat Distribution on PDTHUW26 2009
hour are 16000
converted with 14000

average seat 12000

Seats per hour

number of 10000

8000
aircraft type. 6000

• SLF of .85 is 4000

2000
assumed, to 0

convert further 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23
Time of Day
into Design Peak
Hour (boarded) Total Seats per Hour Arrivals Seats per Hour Departure Seats per Hour

PAX.
 Dynamic Analysis
• Using FAA„s SIMMOD engine with Visual SIMMOD (VS)
for estimating runway capacity and DELAY per flight.
• SIMMOD uses airport design data, flight plan data,
aircraft data, flight path data, distances and coordinates
as inputs.
• Configuration of holding points in airspace and departure
queues (DQ) on the ground is needed
• Gate, link, DQ and holding capacities must be defined

• Flights are „fed“ into the simulated airport system

continiously, random factors are applied.
 Dynamic Analyis Results
• Isolation of potential „bottlenecks“ at airports which cause
delay & reduce productivity. -> VS animation
 Dynamic Analysis Results
LGW Flights and Delays per Flight from SIMMOD
(Flightplan OAG Thu 03/19/2009)
35 120

30
100

25
Delay in min per flight

80

Ops per hour

20
60
15

40
10

20
5

0 0
0-1 1-2 2-3 3-4 4-5 5-6 6-7 7-8 8-9 9-10 10-11 11-12 12-13 13-14 14-15 15-16 16-17 17-18 18-19 19-20 20-21 21-22 22-23 23-24
Time

DEP delay min per flight clone000 DEP delay min per flight clone005 DEP delay min per flight clone010 DEP delay min per flight clone015
DEP delay min per flight clone020 DEP delay min per flight clone030 DEP delay min per flight clone050 DEP delay min per flight clone100
Total Ops clone000 Total Ops clone005 Total Ops clone010 Total Ops clone015
Total Ops clone020 Total Ops clone030 Total Ops clone050 Total Ops clone100
Max. Decl. Cap. Tech. IFR Cap. Max. Delay per Flight
 Conclusion
• Hopefully „one step closer“ to a „valid“ productivity benchmark.
• More indicators at hand for econometric and other benchmarking
analysis -> further research needed
• Application of revenue factors, airport charges, and investment
plans is interesting, challenging and promising.
• Cross checking needed against similar studies (e.g.
EUROCONTROL Performance Review Report (PRR 2007) and
airport master plans.

• Biggest Problems:
• Is slot coordination really effective? Is „grandfathering“ a
utilization & performance limitor with regard to LCC expansion?
• Coordination among stakeholders, environmental debates,
funding and politics -> collaborative descision making (CDM)
• Lack of technology, concerning aircraft separation standards
(ADS-B, SESAR, NextGEN)
Thank you for your attention!

Please send any questions and suggestions to

branko.bubalo@googlemail.com