AIRPORT & AIRFRONT GROWTH 2010
Airports are part of most people's lives, and increasingly so, including moving walks that are a weak substitute for APMs.
Our planet’s 6.8 billion citizens are increasingly mobile. The authoritative Airports Council International calculates that in 2006 (when the total was “only” 6.6 billion earthlings) there were 4.4 billion air trips – two for every three. This grew to 4.9 billion in 2008 – with recent declines in North America but continuing robust growth in the Middle Eas.
International air travel is on an unrelenting course upward in our global economy and culture. Despite growing attention to high-speed rail development and the drudgery of security procedures, airports are increasingly part of our lives – both as individuals who use them and as a society whose aviation gateways are vital to civic and economic life.
APMs are part of the open, airy welcome to passengers at Orlando Airport.
The International Civil Aviation Organization predicts that air traffic will grow at an annual rate of 3.5 percent over the next decade. That’s an overall figure. For international travel – typically involving longer distances – it will increase at the much higher rate of 5.2 percent. The regions of the world show some variation, but overall “less developed” South is catching up with the “developed” North. Revised forecasts will be released this year.
Large airports are huge undertakings. They generate severe environmental impacts – noise, emissions, chemical waste and runoff, highway traffic and more. Increasing numbers of hotels, meeting facilities, and travel-intensive businesses locate near airports -- places of significant real estate investment. More and more activities – even artistic and cultural ones – take place at airports.
Airport terminal planning was revolutionalized by the success of APMs at linking satellite concourses to the main terminal with easy, reliable service. Tampa broke the old mold in the early 1970s. The new paradigm has been repeated at Atlanta, Denver, London (Gatwick, Stansted and Heathrow-5), Orlando, Seoul-Incheon, and elsewhere. Today almost fifty airports have APMs, and the number is growing.
Your airport is smaller, perhaps much smaller. If it handles over five million passengers a year, it is big enough to consider an APM. There are access issues – congested highways, costly rail links, and parking – to be resolved. They generate landside greenhouse gases (GHG). The airside generates noise, and the airport and its commercial surroundings create thousands of jobs. The facilities and their landscaping welcome visitors to your town. How much should be spent on an extra effort to beautify and provide a higher level of service?
Safety and security needs divide an airport into a secured airside and a civilian landside. The airside comprises runways, aprons, terminal gates and secure terminal areas. On the landside are curbs, roadways and rail, parking, ground transport, car rentals, and an array of commercial facilities beyond. Both sides involve movements and generate GHG. APMs play vital roles in each.
The future may become even more creative with the design flexibility of personal rapid transit (PRT). Many destinations can be served because the unit costs of PRT ate low. Low-traffic stations can be quite minimal. Service can be scheduled on-demand and non-stop from each airfront station – whether at a hotel, car rental facility, remote parking, or logistics park – direct to the appropriate terminal section. Putting the swirls of road traffic into electrically-powered PRT can reduce landside greenhouse gas emissions significantly. The challenge will be capacity demand at terminal stations, requiring careful planning.
The new APM at Atlanta - the world's busiest airport - serves landside destinations such as a conventional center and hotels.
- Courtesy of the Georgia International Convention Center
PRT could connect a multitude of landside destinations to Stockholm’s airport.
- Courtesy of Skycab AB.