Airport apron capacity: estimation, representation, and flexibility

SUMMARY This paper addresses some important issues related to airport apron capacity planning and management. An overview of existing apron models for supporting planning studies and for optimizing available resources utilization is given, with an emphasis on analytical models for apron capacity estimation. Constraints on apron usage, physical and operational with respect to different users, are discussed in detail, together with their impact on apron capacity. Simple extension of existing apron capacity estimation models is suggested accounting for constraints both on aircraft types and dominant users. Further on, instead of expressing apron capacity through a single number, an apron capacity envelope is used to illustrate capacity changes, that is, an apron's ability to accept various mixes of dominant users in demand. The apron capacity envelope provides information on capacity for one apron configuration (with respect to stand size and policy of usage) and a given fleet mix, for different shares of dominant users in demand. Finally, apron capacity flexibility is discussed with respect to its role in apron capacity planning and management. It is suggested how to express and interpret apron capacity flexibility.