Low cost airport terminal locations and configurations

The growth in the demand for low-cost airlines has coincided with the growth in the airport industry. One attempt by airports to attract such carriers has been to construct dedicated terminals called low-cost terminals. The ability of these to accommodate fast aircraft-operation time in airfields is heavily influenced by its configuration and location in the airport. Here we evaluate the location and configuration of the dedicated terminal by considering the aircraft taxiing distance and passenger walking distance. Result show a single pier to be preferable configuration for a low-cost terminal. Time and cost efficiency seem to be driven largely by the location of the terminal, rather than its configuration.

► The paper looks into relationship between low-cost terminals development and space limitations in airport, uses a bi-objective optimization model to find optimum location and configuration of low-cost terminals taking account of aircraft taxiing and passenger walking distances.
► A single pier is found to the best configuration for low-cost terminals in terms of minimizing walking distance and construction area.