passenger-terminal-design.pdf

1 Passenger Terminal Design

Passenger Terminal Design

Introduction

As passenger terminals are important interfaces

where passengers transition from land-based

transportation modes to aircraft, special care

needs to be given to ensure air travel is not only

safe, but also accessible, enjoyable and affordable.

While every passenger terminal’s design and

requirements are different it is always

recommended to follow consistent best practice

design principles:

Provide a Safe and Secure Environment

Safety and security are of the highest importance in

the planning, design and operation of terminal

buildings. Passenger terminals provide a critical

component in maintaining the safety and security

of the global aviation system through the

prevention of the passage of people and objects

that can cause harm or lead to acts of unlawful

interference.

Passenger terminals, along with all other airport

facilities must meet both international and national

safety and security requirements. Threats to safety

and security may be of malicious intent, such as

terrorists or criminals, or unintentional, such as

people carrying large quantities of batteries. Due to

the evolution of threats planners should work

closely with authorities to determine appropriate

solutions, including bringing in best practice

emerging from the global aviation community.

Solutions for safe and secure terminal buildings will

be anchored in the building concept and will

normally require a range of controls and

surveillance with significant reliance on

technologies such as access control, e-gates,

CCTV, screening equipment, video analytics and

communications. Technology can also be used to

help minimize the impact of such controls on the

passenger journey and experience.

Provide Optimum Level of Service

IATA's primary objective is to inform the planning

process with recommendations to determine the

optimum, balanced capacity and level of service.

The IATA Level of Service (LoS) framework

provides a set of industry guidelines for passenger

terminal facilities, in terms of the space to be

provided to passengers as well as the time

passengers can expect to be queueing at individual

facilities. These performance guidelines represent

international best practice at many airports around

the world.

The guidelines strive to promote efficiently sized

facilities by finding an optimal balance between

infrastructure costs with passenger comfort. IATA

strongly recommends that all parties involved

collaborate to jointly provide terminal facilities with

an “Optimum Level of Service”.

Provide Efficient, Consolidated Facilities

Providing intuitive and efficient navigation and

circulation throughout the terminal is a key planning

and design objective. Consolidated processing

areas are generally desired and typically provide a

number of benefits, most notably for the

passenger, and also from a reduced land use,

operational efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and

sustainability perspective.

Consolidated terminal processing areas allow an

airport to be more efficient in terms of its own

resource deployment. This efficiency applies to its

own staff, governmental agency staff, airline

partners, ground handlers, and other stakeholders.

Provide Seamless Passenger Journeys

The best airport terminals are those that provide

the most clear and direct path across all passenger

journey paths (domestic, international, and transfer

traffic). Intuitive wayfinding, limiting decision points

and level changes, the use of materials, lighting,

outdoor views and other physical directional clues

that enhance passenger orientation are

significantly more effective than reliance on

signage. Passenger orientation within the

passenger terminal can be greatly enhanced by

adopting a transparent building philosophy.

▪ There is no simpler way to orientate

passengers than to allow them to see their final

destination.

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▪ The simplest way to maintain passenger flow

and orientation is to limit the number of choices

available. “Straight ahead” is always the

simplest way to maintain passenger orientation.

▪ Convoluted circulation routes that include

changes in direction or level complicate the

passenger journey.

▪ Passengers should not be subjected to

changes in direction greater than 90 degrees

and should not be made to perform repeated

90 degree turns within a short distance.

▪ Passenger routes that backtrack or cross other

flows should be avoided.

▪ Walking distances from the forecourt to the

gate and vice versa should be minimized.

▪ Walking distances in excess of 300 meters

should be augmented with moving walkways.

▪ Commercial areas should be “on the way not in

the way” and provide convenient access

without impeding direct access to gates or

increasing the overall walking distance.

▪ Quick, easy and direct routings through

terminals should also be accommodated.

▪ Level changes should be avoided. When there

is no alternative, then level changes should be

achieved by modes of conveyance (i.e.,

escalators and elevators) with an associated

staircase and/or ramp as backup.

Enable Efficient Operations

Before embarking on a capital investment program,

it is recommended that airports review their current

operational processes and procedures to identify

any opportunity to improve efficiency. By adjusting

current processes and procedures–thus, better

utilizing existing facilities–the airport can gain

efficiencies, increase the level of service, and often

add capacity with little or no cost.

Beyond process improvements, the planning and

design of passenger terminals (including

renovations and expansions to existing facilities)

should be based on sound planning guidelines.

There should be a strong focus on efficiency which

should be a goal across all aspects of the terminal.

This should be supported by a concept of

operations focusing on outcomes, agreed with

airport users.

Efficient outcomes mean higher levels of service,

lower operations and maintenance costs, and a

lower carbon footprint; three desirable outcomes

for any airport.

Provide Cost-Effective Design Solutions

Terminal design projects should identify cost-

effective solutions seeking to ensure that

functional requirements are addressed efficiently

and that design solutions are selected in order to

minimize operating costs for airports and users.

Proposals to extend or construct new passenger

terminal facilities should consider a detailed

business case and cost-benefit analysis. Business

Cases must demonstrate and quantify clear

benefits in terms of increased capacity, improved

passenger experience and operational efficiency,

as well as providing sustainable design solutions.

Business cases must consider not just the required

capital expenditure (CAPEX) but ideally the whole-

life-cycle cost of the project. It is also

recommended to consider operating and

replacement costs (OPEX/REPEX), to achieve an

optimum balance between initial investment and

the need for ongoing maintenance.

Airport capital investments should ultimately only

proceed where a clear business case exists,

supported by a positive cost benefit analysis and

the explicit agreement of airlines. This recognizes

that a direct cost relatedness exists between

airport infrastructure investments and airport

charges that airlines pay for. See IATA airport

infrastructure business cases position paper for

further guidance.

In order to facilitate future growth, designs should

seek to ensure that airports can be expanded

incrementally. Additional infrastructure should be

added in an economically efficient manner on a

“just in time” basis to meet increasing demand.

Furthermore, expansions must be planned to

ensure their compatibility with the airport master

plan to avoid negative impacts to airport operations

and future constraints.

Provide Accessible Facilities

A key objective of every project should be to

ensure that airport facilities are planned and

designed to be used by everyone, including those

with disabilities, without the need for adaptation or

specialized design.

Airports should follow the principles of Universal

Design from the outset of all new projects. For

brownfield projects where adapting legacy facilities

can be challenging, every effort should be made to

3 Passenger Terminal Design

incorporate Universal Design principles, accepting

that it might not always be possible to fully address

the needs of all passengers with disabilities.

Greenfield projects, on the other hand, can benefit

greatly (and avoid subsequent costs) by

incorporating universal design and inclusion early

on as part of the planning process.

Plan for Integrated Systems

The systems environment of a terminal can be

complex. An extensive variety of sophisticated

mechanical and data systems support the

operation of the airport and its partners (i.e., the

airlines, governmental agencies, and others).

Examples of such systems include, among many

others, check-in systems, Baggage Handling

Systems (BHS), data management systems

including Airport Operations Data Bases (AODB), or

Flight Information Display Systems (FIDS).

Many of these systems exchange data information

with each other in order to provide a

comprehensive airport operational system.

Integrating and coordinating the input and output

of these various data systems is an important part

of airport management.

One of the most important systems, and the one

that has the biggest impact on terminal design is

the BHS. BHS are expensive to build, maintain and

operate, and are an important factor in the footprint

and cost of the terminal building. The BHS has a

bigger impact on the design and spatial planning of

a passenger terminal than any other processing

systems and can be difficult to retrofit into an

existing passenger terminal design.

For new terminals, the BHS needs to be considered

early in the design process and should be aligned

with the terminal's planning assumptions.

The processing of passengers and baggage are

fully interdependent therefore any constraint in the

handling of baggage can limit the overall passenger

capacity.

Design for Passenger Satisfaction

Designing for passenger satisfaction should follow

all the journey steps and for all different users

including staff and visitors. Particular attention

should be paid to journey steps that can create

higher levels of stress in passengers. Good

facilities for staff are important in their delivery of

service excellence.

Designers should ensure that all the core

components are resilient in their operation with

necessary redundancy to enable maintenance to

be carried out without affecting the journey.

There is increasing public interest in airports

making positive interventions on important issues

such as sustainability and inclusivity and clear

demonstration of such values will likely add to the

passenger experience.

Consider the Local Context

The journey through the passenger terminal

provides an excellent opportunity for identification

with the region that the airport serves, acting as a

gateway with its unique culture and sense of place.

The planning and design of the airport terminal

should consider the local context through

showcasing the culture, heritage, spirit, and

amenities that can be expected. Input from local

communities is to be encouraged.

The design of the terminal will also need to meet all

local standards and regulations. This may result in

different layouts for similar functional

requirements, in particular for fire protection,

security, seismic, religion, sustainability and climate

conditions.

Plan for Flexible, Modular Expansion

Each of the interconnected subsystems in an

airport terminal will likely need to adapt as

passenger traffic evolves. Whether it is capacity

enhancement, a modification in operating

protocols or the regulatory environment, utilizing

modular, expandable building designs, materials

and systems facilitates accommodating such

required changes over time.

Terminal facilities must be designed so that they

can respond to growth in a logical, phased manner.

It is recommended that, on an unconstrained site, a

plan be based on modular flexibility and

expandability, starting from a single terminal

complex or “campus” capable of accommodating

the passenger handling needs for as long as

possible before embarking on the implementation

of further terminals.

Each of the terminal sub-systems must be in

balance with the others as there is no benefit in

having surplus capacity in one sub-system if others

are constrained.

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A modular design philosophy enables capacity

enhancements to be added to individual

subsystems and facilities without unnecessarily

disrupting existing operations.

Clustered siting of physical elements that are

difficult, costly and disruptive to relocate (i.e.,

structural elements, vertical circulation and service

cores) is effective.

Airports must be designed to minimize the physical

constraints each element imposes on future

expansion by ensuring that all elements address

flexibility.

Safeguard for Innovation and Future

Operational Changes

As the aviation industry continues to be an

extremely dynamic business, major changes will

continue to affect the way airlines operate,

passengers interact with airlines, and airlines and

passengers use airports. In addition, changing

governmental regulations, new industry standards,

availability of user data and the constant search for

new revenue opportunities will further drive

change.

Airlines and passengers will continue to challenge

airports to optimize their processes and operate

efficient facilities at the least cost generating

efficiencies that can be passed on to the

passenger.

Airport owners, developers, and designers are

faced with the challenge of providing cost-effective

airport facilities that respond to airline

requirements and changing business models, all

while offering the greatest possible flexibility.

It is recommended that forward looking

opportunities to improve safety and operations,

increase efficiencies, reduce costs (all with a focus

on meeting the level of service), should be a

constant airport initiative.

Champion Collaborative Partnering in

Design and Development

The process of collaborative partnering brings

together all project development team members,

including owners, architects, engineers,

construction managers, and contractors, and all

project stakeholders, including airport users,

operations, maintenance, properties,

environmental systems, security, inspections,

concessionaires, airlines, and regulators, in a formal

cooperative working environment. With

collaborative partnering, common goals to achieve

improvements in key project performance

outcomes such as safety, quality, schedule, and

cost, are established and agreed at the beginning

of the project and steering committees measure

performance throughout the life of the project.

Consultation with stakeholders is a key component

of a successful collaborative partnering

arrangement. A collaborative approach between

airports and airlines is essential to the overall

success of a project and, when managed correctly,

will ultimately deliver benefits for all parties.

Meaningful consultation requires identifying key

stakeholders early in the planning process before

irreversible decisions are made. While there are

many stakeholders who vary by location, airlines

should be regarded as a primary stakeholder. In

particular, a regular, structured dialogue between

subject matter experts is beneficial, to ensure user

requirements are captured during concept and

options selection.

Supporting Documents

IATA Airport Development Reference Manual 12

edition.

IATA Level of Service (LoS) Best Practice

IATA Airport Infrastructure Business cases

IATA Infrastructure Investment – Best Practice

consultation