Search Results (241)

The siphon effect between airports has amplified the polarization in passenger throughput, undermining the balanced development and sustainability of airport clusters. The airport siphon effect occurs when one airport attracts a disproportionate share of passengers, concentrating traffic at the expense of others, which affects the overall resilience of the entire airport cluster. To address this issue, this study proposes a siphon index, expands the range of ground transportation options for passengers, and establishes a zero-siphon model to assess the impact of siphoning on the resiliency of airport clusters. Using this framework, four major airport clusters in China were selected as research subjects, with regional aviation accessibility serving as a measure of resilience. The results showed that among the four airport clusters, the siphon effect is most pronounced in the Guangzhou region. To explore the implications of this effect further, three airport disruption scenarios were simulated to assess the resilience of the Pearl River Delta airport cluster. The results indicated that the intensity and timing of disruptive events significantly affect airport cluster resilience, with hub airports being particularly sensitive. This study analyzes the risks associated with excessive route concentration, providing policymakers with critical insights to enhance the sustainability, equity, and resilience of airport clusters. The proposed strategies facilitate coordinated infrastructure development, optimized air–ground intermodal connectivity, and risk mitigation. These measures contribute to building more sustainable and adaptive aviation networks in rapidly urbanizing regions. Full article

In today’s dynamic and highly uncertain environment, organizations, particularly in the aviation sector, face increasing challenges that demand resilient, flexible, and data-driven change management decisions. Responding to the growing need for structured approaches to managing complex uncertainties—geopolitical tensions, economic volatility, social shifts, rapid technological advancements, environmental pressures and regulatory changes—this research proposes a theoretical change management model for aviation service providers, such as airports. Integrating three analytical approaches, the model offers a robust, multi-method approach for supporting sustainable transformation under uncertainty. Normative analysis using Bayesian decision theory identifies influential external environmental factors, capturing probabilistic relationships, and revealing causal links under uncertainty. Prescriptive planning through scenario theory explores alternative future pathways and helps to identify possible predictions, offer descriptive evaluation employing fuzzy comprehensive evaluation, and assess decision quality under vagueness and complexity. The proposed four-stage model—observation, analysis, evaluation, and response—offers a methodology for continuous external environment monitoring, scenario development, and data-driven, proactive change management decision-making, including the impact assessment of change and development. The proposed model contributes to the theoretical advancement of the change management research area under uncertainty and offers practical guidance for aviation organizations (airports) facing a volatile external environment. This framework strengthens aviation organizations’ ability to anticipate, evaluate, and adapt to multifaceted external changes, supporting operational flexibility and adaptability and contributing to the sustainable development of aviation services. Supporting aviation organizations with tools to proactively manage systemic uncertainty, this research directly supports the integration of sustainability principles, such as resilience and adaptability, for long-term value creation through change management decision-making. Full article

The aviation industry is under increasing pressure to reduce its environmental impact while maintaining safety and performance standards. One promising area for improvement lies in the use of sustainable materials in airport infrastructure. One of the issues preventing uptake of emerging sustainable technologies is the lack of guidance relating to the opportunities, potential benefits, associated risks and an implementation plan specific to airport pavements. This research reviewed opportunities to incorporate waste materials into rigid airport pavements, focusing on concrete base slabs. Commonly used supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), such as fly ash and ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) were considered, as well as recycled aggregates, including recycled concrete aggregate (RCA), recycled crushed glass (RCG), and blast furnace slag (BFS). Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) were also used to quantify the potential for environmental benefit associated with various concrete mixtures, with findings showing 23% to 50% reductions in embodied carbon are possible for selected theoretical concrete mixtures that incorporate waste materials. With considered evaluation and structured implementation, the integration of waste materials into rigid airport pavements offers a practical and effective route to improve environmental outcomes in aviation infrastructure. It was concluded that a Triple Bottom Line (TBL) framework—assessing financial, environmental, and social factors—guides material selection and can support sustainable decision-making, as does performance-based specifications that enable sustainable technologies to be incorporated into airport pavement. The study also proposed a consequence-based implementation hierarchy to facilitate responsible adoption of waste materials in airside pavements. The outcomes of this review will assist airport managers and pavement designers to implement practical changes to achieve more sustainable rigid airport pavements in the future. Full article

Currently, numerous conventional airport runways suffer from cracking distresses and cannot meet their structural and functional requirements. To address the urgent demand for rapid and durable maintenance of airport runways, this study investigates the material optimization and curing behavior of cold-mix epoxy asphalt (CEA) for non-disruptive overlays. Eight commercial CEAs were examined through tensile and overlay tests to evaluate their strength, toughness, and reflective cracking resistance. Two high-performing formulations (CEA 1 and CEA 8) were selected for further curing characterization using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) tests, and the non-isothermal curing kinetics were analyzed with different contents of Component C. The results reveal that CEA 1 and CEA 8 were selected as promising formulations with superior toughness and reflective cracking resistance across a wide temperature range. DSC-based curing kinetic analysis shows that the curing reactions follow an autocatalytic mechanism, and activation energy decreases with conversion, confirming a self-accelerating process of CEA. The addition of Component C effectively modified the curing behavior, and CEA 8 with 30% Component C reduced curing time by 60%, enabling traffic reopening within half a day. The curing times were accurately predicted for each type of CEA using curing kinetic models based on autocatalytic and iso-conversional approaches. These findings will provide theoretical and practical guidance for high-performance airport runway overlays, supporting rapid repair, extended service life, and environmental sustainability. Full article

Accurate short-term passenger forecasts help regional airports align capacity with demand and plan investments effectively. Drawing on quarterly traffic data for 2010–2024 supplied by the Polish Civil Aviation Authority, this study employs Holt–Winters exponential smoothing to predict passenger volumes at Szczecin–Goleniów Airport for 2025. Additive and multiplicative formulations were parameterized with Excel Solver, using the mean absolute percentage error to identify the better-fitting model. The additive version captured both the steady post-pandemic recovery and pronounced seasonal peaks, indicating that passenger throughput is likely to rise modestly year on year, with the highest loads expected in the summer quarter and the lowest in early spring. These findings suggest the airport should anticipate continued growth and consider adjustments to terminal capacity, apron allocation, and staffing schedules to maintain service quality. Because the Holt–Winters method extrapolates historical patterns and does not incorporate external shocks—such as economic downturns, policy changes, or public health crises—its projections are most reliable over the short horizon examined and should be complemented by scenario-based analyses in future work. This study contributes to sustainable airport management by providing a reproducible, data-driven forecasting framework that can optimize resource allocation with minimal environmental impact. Full article

This study aims to develop an information strategy plan (ISP) for the integrated management of airport facility information in South Korea by applying smart technologies such as building information modeling (BIM), digital twins, and openBIM. As the demand for intelligent lifecycle management and efficient facility operations continues to grow, airport infrastructure requires standardized and interoperable systems to manage complex assets and stakeholder collaboration. This research addresses three core challenges facing Korean airports: the lack of sustainable maintenance environments, the absence of data standards and systems, and the insufficiency of user-oriented platforms. Through system analysis, benchmarking, and SWOT assessment, the study proposes a stepwise implementation roadmap consisting of development, integration, and advancement phases and designs a “To-Be” model that incorporates 37 component technologies and a standardized information framework. The proposed ISP supports data-driven airport operations, enhances collaboration, and accelerates digital transformation, ultimately contributing to the development of smart and globally competitive airports. Full article

International waste policy promotes the reduction and re-use of waste materials, and in some cases, specifically calls for the use of recycled materials in pavements. In countries like Australia, most of the aircraft pavement network is constructed of flexible pavements. Consequently, understanding the opportunities for recycled materials in flexible aircraft pavements is paramount to increasing the technology uptake. This paper reviews opportunities for the incorporation of recycled materials in flexible airport pavement construction, specifically, their application to particle substitution in unbound and asphaltic layers, use in stabilization treatments, and use as a bitumen modifier. Additionally, environmental product declarations are reviewed to provide a range of typical environmental costs for each recycled material when considering material processing for incorporation into flexible pavements. These materials are compared to virgin material environmental costs to determine which recycled materials provide the highest environmental benefit potential. It was concluded that particle replacement in unbound layers with waste materials had a similar environmental cost to using virgin materials. However, the requirement to dispose of waste material to the landfill can be significantly reduced. For asphaltic layers, recycled asphalt pavement as an asphalt mixture replacement, fly ash as a hydrated lime replacement, and waste plastic and crumbed rubber as a virgin polymer replacement all are effective in reducing the environmental cost. To further increase the technology uptake, a risk-based approach for the implementation of waste materials in airport flexible pavements is recommended, which considers performance testing, the depth of the pavement layer, and the pavement functional area. Full article

Aviation heritage, though relatively recent in historical terms, constitutes an important and increasingly recognized component of urban cultural landscapes. This article explores how former airports and aviation-related infrastructure have been preserved, adapted, or commemorated in Berlin—a city with a uniquely complex aviation history shaped by political division, technological progress, and evolving urban needs. Based on a typology proposed by the author, the study analyzes five former airport sites in Berlin (Johannisthal, Staaken, Tempelhof, Gatow, and Tegel), employing historical research, field observations, and spatial analysis. The results reveal a wide spectrum of approaches to aviation heritage, ranging from complete erasure to creative reuse integrating ecological, recreational, educational, and symbolic functions. The study also highlights the role of aviation heritage in fostering local identity and contributing to sustainable tourism. The proposed typology may serve as a useful tool for assessing and managing aviation heritage in other urban contexts. Full article

Airports differ vastly in purpose, scale, land use and activities. Although several criteria and definitions have been used to classify airports worldwide, no universally accepted classification currently exists. The lack of standardisation means an airport could fall under multiple overlapping categories, creating confusion and obscuring its actual role. Australia also lacks an official system that reflects the diverse nature of its airports. This paper addresses that gap by proposing a holistic and integrated four-tiered classification framework for Australian airports. Drawing on an international literature review and comparative policy analysis, the classification is based on four criteria: airport location, governance, network function and passenger profile. To illustrate its practical application, the system is applied to case studies of selected airports representing each tier, as well as airports that overlap between tiers. The proposed classification has the potential to enable more strategic, coordinated and sustainable infrastructure investment and land use decision-making around airports. Full article

The optimisation of airport infrastructure capacities lacks adequate tools that would enable airport owners and managers to make strategic decisions related to sustainable development and strengthening multimodal connectivity. Assessing the sustainability of the transport system is one of the important issues in creating transport policies worldwide. In this research, the methodology of multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) was used, which can be applied to decision making and the evaluation of transport projects, considering more than one criterion in the selection process. The Stepwise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis (SWARA) method is one of the new MCDM methods. The SWARA method will assess the weights of the selected main criteria and sub-criteria for the multimodal connection of airports to the railway transport infrastructure. In this method, the expert plays an important role in the evaluation and calculation of the criteria weights. This research also aims to respond to the need to define a framework for objective and transparent decision-making based on the assessment of the weighting factors of the selected main criteria and sub-criteria. To assess the justification for the choice of railway transport for connecting airports, financial, traffic, environmental, and availability criteria were used. Full article

The advancement of sustainable economic development has become a strategic imperative for enterprises aiming to combine financial development with environmental and social responsibility. In this regard, strategic enterprise management (SEM) has a critical role in incorporating the aspects of sustainability into decision making. The present paper suggests a multicriteria decision-making framework that utilizes fuzzy TOPSIS in assessing and ranking sustainability integration aspects in organizations. By considering the intrinsic vagueness of sustainability analysis, the fuzzy TOPSIS model enables the systematic analysis of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors by companies for ensuring their alignment to corporate strategic goals. A case study of a major international airport in Greece demonstrates how the proposed methodology assists strategic choice making, balancing economic viability and sustainable value creation. The results show primary trade-offs among human capital investment, environmental footprint reduction, and stakeholder communication, demonstrating how companies can enhance long-term resilience and competitiveness. This research adds to the existing literature by giving an integrated strategic enterprise management framework with the use of decision support instruments to foster sustainability-oriented corporate governance and strategic efficacy. The suggested model is flexible and can be applied in any industry, hence being a benchmark for sustainable business practice. This paper contributes to the literature by integrating fuzzy TOPSIS with balanced scorecard in the context of airport strategic sustainability management, offering both methodological advancement and empirical insights for transport and supply chain enterprises. Full article

Various sectors focus on transitioning to clean and renewable energy sources, particularly airport microgrids (AMGs), which offer the potential for highly reliable and resilient operations. As airports increasingly integrate renewable energy sources, ensuring stable and efficient power becomes a critical challenge. In this context, maintaining proper frequency is essential for the reliable operation of AMGs, which helps maintain grid stability and reliable operation. This paper proposes a new hybrid disturbance observer-based controller with a fractional-order controller (DOBC/FOC) for operating AMGs with high levels of renewable energy integration and advanced frequency regulation (FR) capabilities. The proposed controller utilizes DOBC coupled with a non-integer FOC for load frequency control (LFC), optimized for peak performance under varying operational conditions. In addition, a decentralized control strategy is introduced to manage the participation of electric vehicles and lithium-ion battery systems within the airport’s energy ecosystem, enabling effective demand response and energy storage utilization. Furthermore, the parameters of these controllers are optimized simultaneously to ensure optimal performance in both transient and steady-state conditions. The proposed DOBC/FOC controller demonstrates strong performance and reliability according to simulation outcomes, showcasing its superior performance in maintaining frequency stability, reducing fluctuations, and ensuring continuous power supply in diverse operating scenarios, such as 55.5% and 76.5% in step load perturbations when compared to the utilization of electric vehicles (EVs) and electric aircraft (EAC), respectively. These results underline the potential of this approach in enhancing the resilience and sustainability of AMG and contributing to more intelligent and eco-friendly airport infrastructure. Full article

This paper provides a novel approach to airport sustainability with a comparative analysis of frameworks presented by Airports Council International (ACI) and the World Economic Forum (WEF), a case study on environmental social governance (ESG) reporting for large US airports, a historical perspective and discussion regarding legal considerations, and sustainability metrics. Airport sustainability reporting provides numerous advantages, including enhanced transparency and accountability, and it also supports risk management, regulatory compliance, operational efficiency, risk management, community engagement, and investor relations. There are 30 large hub airports in the US, and each one of these publishes information on sustainability, which may consist of a sustainability report, reports on sustainability related topics, or website information. Eight of these large US airports publish an ESG report. ESG reports are of increasing interest due to their use internationally and due to the role of ESG reports in investment decisions. This paper presents an analysis of the information contained in ESG reports published by US airports and compares the frame of reference used by airports that utilize UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their reporting. Case studies of ESG reports for Salt Lake City and Dallas Fort Worth Airports are presented to illustrate ESG reports, and the use of the SDG identified in these reports is compared the framework identified by Airports Council International (ACI) and the World Economic Forum (WEF). The discussion of airport ESG reporting provides a thorough and contextual review of the topic and examines how this framework may evolve to address the increasing interest in ESG reporting for US airports. The information provided may be used by airports to improve their sustainability reporting. Full article

Sustainable design in large-scale infrastructure projects, such as airports, is crucial for minimizing environmental impacts while ensuring long-term financial feasibility. This study focuses on selecting the most sustainable pavement solution for airport construction, using Tabuk Airport in Saudi Arabia as a case study. The purpose of this study is to evaluate four pavement alternatives using a multi-criteria decision-making approach to identify the optimal solution in terms of sustainability, cost-effectiveness, and feasibility. The alternatives were assessed based on nine key criteria, including environmental impact, durability, cost, and maintenance. The Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method ranks the alternatives, while the Fuzzy Analytic Network Process (FANP) calculates the criteria weights, addressing uncertainties and interdependencies. Geographic Information System (GIS) is integrated to incorporate spatial factors affecting pavement sustainability. The results show that the alternative using recycled materials (A4) is the most suitable, offering the best balance of sustainability and cost. A4 achieved the highest ranking in the evaluation, making it the recommended choice for the upcoming Tabuk Airport project. This study demonstrates the effective application of decision-making tools, such as TOPSIS, FANP, and GIS, in guiding sustainable infrastructure development and providing a replicable framework for similar projects worldwide. Full article

The construction of concrete airfield pavements aims to ensure sufficient load-bearing capacity for the safe operation of aircraft. In order to reduce the pavement thickness and the associated costs, materials with improved properties compared to conventional concrete mixtures are generally used. This measure also aims to reduce the use of cement raw materials as part of a more sustainable strategy. On this basis, various fibers can be added to conventional concrete to improve the compressive and flexural strength of the concrete. Against this background, the present study aims to quantify the effect of polypropylene and steel fibers on the thickness of airfield concrete pavements. For this reason, international experience on this topic is first summarized in order to select suitable weighted values of concrete flexural strength for further analysis. Subsequently, an airfield concrete pavement for the edge of an airport runway is designed according to the Unified Facility Criteria (UFC) of the US Department of Defense. Comparisons are made between the pavement thicknesses determined using the above method and conclusions are drawn on the effects of using steel and polypropylene fibers on the design of airfield pavements. The analysis showed that the use of steel fibers can lead to a 25% reduction in concrete layer thickness, while the use of polypropylene fibers reduces the concrete layer thickness by 8–16%. Full article