Common Use Facilities and Equipment at Airports. A Synthesis of Airport Practice

摘要

Airport operators and airlines are trying to balance growth and costs. This search for balance has caused airlines to consider carefully how changes at airports affect the airlines overall expenses. It has also encouraged airport operators to find alternative ways to facilitate growth and competition, while keeping the overall charges to the airlines as low as possible. The entry of many new low-cost carriers has also highlighted the need to keep costs down at airports. One opportunity that airport operators around the world are seizing is the implementation of common use. Common use technology enables an airport operator to take space that was previously assigned exclusively to a single airline and make it available for use by multiple airlines and their passengers. Common use is a fundamental shift in the philosophy of airport space utilization. It allows the airport operator to use existing space more efficiently, thus increasing airport capacity without necessarily constructing new gates, concourses, terminals, or check-in counters. In the construction of new gates, concourses, terminals, or check-in counters, it has been determined by de Neufville and Belin that the deployment of a common use strategy can help an airport save up to 30% of the costs of such new construction. Common use, although not new to the airline industry, is a seldom-employed tactic in domestic airline terminals in the United States. This synthesis was prepared to help airport operators, airlines, and other interested parties gain an understanding of the progressive path of implementing common use, noted as the common use continuum. It serves as an introduction to the state of common use throughout the world, reviews the knowledge currently available, and provides examples of how it is currently employed in the United States. The report identifies advantages and disadvantages of common use to airports and airlines, and touches on how common use affects the airline passenger.