Category - Landside Development

Airports Council International (ACI) forecasts that existing airport capacity will need to double by 2031 to handle more than 12 billion passengers and 136 million aircraft movements per year. The collective price tag for capital expenditures needed to service the increased traffic is estimated at more than $1 trillion. Yes, that's trillion with a "t."

When Thella Bowens transitioned operation of San Diego International Airport (SAN) from the Port of San Diego to the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority a dozen years ago, one of her goals was to create a "world-class organization." Including all types and sizes of businesses in the organization's massive infrastructure projects and everyday business is one of the ways SAN continues to work toward Bowen's sky-high goal.

When it comes to the art and science of signage, connecting with 95% of your audience is like grabbing the brass ring, explains Mike McCartney, engineering manager at Philadelphia International Airport (PHL).

After losing their respective carriers and being declared “dead” by one consultant’s study, two southern Mississippi airports have joined forces and secured shared service with the help of a new consultant and an essential air service contract. In early November, Meridian Regional Airport (MEI) and Hattiesburg-Laurel Regional Airport (PIB) both celebrated the beginning of new service to Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) on ExpressJet, operating under Skywest for American Airlines. After picking up passengers at PIB, 50-seat regional jets continue to MEI, just 60 miles north, to pick up additional passengers before heading to DFW. “Do you know how much fun it was to announce we had jet service with American?” asks Tom Williams, president and chief executive officer of the Meridian Airport Authority.

Airport officials who insist that environmental programs are a) too expensive; b) disruptive to operations; c) largely ineffective; or d) all of the above could learn a lot from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA). Last year, it handled 34.8 million passengers while maintaining more than a dozen green initiatives, and in the process further solidified its position as one of the industry's strongest environmental leaders.

Constrained by a state-mandated maximum employee headcount, Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) relies heavily on the private sector to complete many of its everyday and not-so-everyday tasks.

The winter of 2013-2014 was a nasty brute. In addition to mercilessly slamming the Midwest and Northeast, it also picked on unwitting areas in the South and Southeast. Icy conditions in Atlanta led the national news for days, and snowfall records were set throughout the United States.

The Boomers are bailing - retiring to places where the weather is warm, drinks are cold and taxes low. As they leave the workforce in droves, many organizations struggle to fill their senior-level positions. Further complicating matters, the "milllennials" who hope to fill the Baby Boomers' spots have a distinctly different set of qualifications, personal attributes and attitudes about work. Airports - large and small - are no exception to the trend.

Kevin Markwell clearly remembers how officials determined the final site for the main air traffic control tower at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport (ORD) in the early 1990s. "Several tower employees went up in a helicopter at the proposed locations and altitudes, sat there and spun the helicopter around in all different directions,"recalls the support manager for tower plans and procedures. "They wanted to see if there were any problem areas for line of sight."

After a long day of work, most airport employees are more than ready to check out. But once a week, a special cadre at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) stays nearly five more hours to learn more about the airport industry. The employees are voluntary participants of PHX's Management Development Program, a 14-month curriculum administered and taught by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

A new breed of customer service representatives is popping up in a handful of eastern U.S. airports. They speak to passengers in a clear, pleasant voice and maintain a steady, predictable level of patience and enthusiasm - even though they work 24/7. They're never pulled away on a more urgent matter and hold strictly to the "company line" that airport officials want them to convey.