Company insight
forced to stand for hours before getting through customs, they’re unlikely to be happy, especially if pregnant or travelling with young children in tow. At the same time, Appler explains how disrupting travellers will “always affect” others down the supply chain. One example is airlines themselves. The EU already fines operators when flights are delayed – Appler says if the situation deteriorates further, airlines could cut flights and move routes to better performing airports. Given the industry saw record flight cancellations last summer already, that’s hardly ideal.
Passenger terminal simulation Any time a new policy or regulation is introduced, there is an impact on the standard operation procedures, which, in turn, affects how passengers will be processed. Even if new technology is introduced to help cope with the new policy or regulation, the way passengers will be processed will change. Airport operators are obviously aware of these challenges – if nothing else, it’s reflected in how much they’re investing in potential solutions. If you glance at Transoft’s website, you’ll see airports as far afield as Sydney and Hamburg exploiting AirTOP, the Canadian company’s bespoke fast- time simulation solution. Spend some time exploring what the tool can actually do and the reasoning for this popularity becomes clear. The software can help airports minimise cost expenditure while maintaining passengers’ level of service and expectations in the range decided by the airport.
and ideas that were hidden will appear. Appler describes how planners can integrate bathrooms or additional seating into the hall, along the way to improve customers’ experience. Thanks to the 2D and 3D visualisation that is available, users can also see what is happening. This helps tremendously with the understanding of the problem and communicating with other stakeholders. As Appler argues, his AirTOP models could, for instance, be used by the airport partners when trying to develop optimised staffing rosters. In a similar vein, Appler says the software is valuable in his conversations with other departments, such as finance, to support reasoning and gain funding. Given EES is only due to go live next
Non-Schengen arrival area at Hamburg Terminal 2, with common baggage reclaim on the left. Smooth journey
year, no airport actually knows how it will work in practice. Simulation offers the possibility not only to evaluate correlation
“[AirTOP] could be used to model facilities across the whole terminal building, from the entrance to the gates and through arrivals to the exit.”
AirTOP Terminal allows airports to quickly test many different scenarios and conduct what-if analysis to determine which is the best option to implement. Airports can then evaluate the trade off between level of service provided and cost of providing that service. During the process of simulating and analysing different scenarios, problems
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between variables, but also evaluate the causality. This is key when no operational data exists (yet), because it allows airports to deduce cause-and-effect relationships between variables. In other words, in addition to knowing and understanding the problem, the tool also allows users to understand and evaluate the cause of the problem.
Even as Hamburg and other airports are using AirTOP to prepare for EES, Appler and his colleagues also have their eyes further ahead. As an urban airport, Hamburg doesn’t have the space to construct whole new terminals from scratch. Instead, the team is using the tool to investigate the possibility of converting any unused corner of the airport to accommodate extra passengers. As Appler puts it: “This is something you can do very well with AirTOP Terminal, because the model is quickly built, and you can modify it to your needs, and see how much additional space is required.” Nor, of course, is AirTOP Terminal merely a tool for immigration. On the contrary, Bono Tur says it can be used to model facilities across the whole terminal building, from the entrance through to the gates and from arrivals to the terminal exit. Users can also model specific airport processes in isolation such as check-in, security, baggage reclaim.
Company insight Since 1991, Transoft Solutions has developed advanced and specialised software solutions for aviation, civil infrastructure, transportation and operational professionals. Its vision is to empower professionals to create safe and efficient transportation infrastructure. ●
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