You are here: Home » News » Feature Article
Imagine 70,000 people every day – more than 26 million each year – moving through your workplace. They're carrying coats, bags, lattes, some have children in tow, and all have someplace they want to go. How do you move them quickly and smoothly through your facility and on to their destination?
That's the challenge for planners at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, made even tougher by post-9/11 security requirements and screening checkpoints that are run not by the airport, but by a federal agency. Add to that the continuing construction of a $2.6 billion capital improvement program, and you've got the potential for a considerable tangle.
How do they do it? The solution is both science and art – and must adapt to the evolution of technology.
How do you estimate the number of people who will be in the airport at any given time, so that you can improve traffic flow and manage staff efficiently? Planners use historical and current flight schedules combined with passenger surveys that reveal which airlines and concourses people are most likely to use.
Spread sheets and computer models simulate passenger flow and help predict where congestion may occur. Planners also rely on their own observations and passenger comments. It's not an exact science, but it's improving every day.
"As a project planner, you see what's working and what's not, and you get better and better at predicting," says Aviation Project Planner Michael Drollinger. "It's like the lines at the supermarket. You may see the queue building and call for additional staff to open another cash register, but once the queues start it takes time to clear them out again."
Planning for security checkpoints presents a special challenge because they are operated and staffed by the federal Transportation Security Administration. TSA has its own procedures for passenger and staffing estimates.
In 1996, Sea-Tac planned the South Terminal and Central Terminal expansions – to be completed in 2004 and 2005 respectively – with security checkpoints arranged so that passengers could traverse them in seconds. After 9/11, everything changed.
Processing times soared. TSA implemented new technology and procedures to check shoes, carry-ons and other items until checkpoint time per traveler more than tripled – not including time spent waiting in line.
Meanwhile, other technology helped speed up the airline check-in process. How do you balance movement through an airport when some things are slowing down and others progressing? This is where the art comes in.
"It's very difficult," Drollinger says. It involves adapting your scientific assumptions to the evolving technologies, while considering the immediate needs of passengers.
During this summer's peak travel time, when passenger lines at Sea-Tac were long and frustrations rising, the Port of Seattle applied an elegant, low-tech solution: port staff and some hired assistants left their desks for the checkpoint lines, to help passengers prepare themselves and their bags for quick movement through the magnetometer.
They were simply helping a lot of people move smoothly through their workplace.
Sea-Tac, the nation's 15th busiest passenger airport, doubled the number of security checkpoint lanes in 2002 to help speed passengers through.
Line managers reduce wait times by helping travelers prepare for security screening.