Including airport duty-free shopping in arriving passenger simulation and the opportunities this presents

Abstract

Simulating passenger flows within airports is very important as it can provide an indication of queue lengths, bottlenecks, system capacity and overall level of service. To date, visual simulation tools such as agentbased models have focused on processing formalities such as check-in, and not incorporate discretionary activities such as duty-free shopping. As airport retail contributes greatly to airport revenue generation, but also has potentially detrimental effects on facilitation efficiency benchmarks, this study developed a simplistic simulation model which captures common duty-free purchasing opportunities, as well as highlevel behaviors of passengers. It is argued that such a model enables more realistic simulation of passenger facilitation, and provides a platform for simulating real-time revenue generation as well as more complex passenger behaviors within the airport. Simulations are conducted to verify the suitability of the model for inclusion in the international arrivals process for assessing passenger flow and infrastructure utilization.

A framework for model integration and holistic modelling of socio-technical systems

“…The resultant framework is demonstrated on an airport passenger facilitation case study, showing how a ABM [22], BPMN [47] and HQBN [48] can be integrated to provide whole-of-system decision support. It is found that decomposition and classification of model components as per the STS element hierarchy and three layered framework provides a systematic way to establish information flow both internally and between models via links/interface points.…”

“…This is enabled via static, dynamic and behavioural object instantiations of STS elements (where an instance of a STS element is a component in the model). This section demonstrates the utility of proposed framework with a case study application in the Airports of the Future project, an Australian Research Council linkage project comprising 29 government, industry and academic organisations [22,44,41,18]. The objective of the project is to improve the efficiency, security and experience of the passenger facilitation process in airports.…”

“…Examples of these approaches include discrete event simulation [20,21], Agent Based Modelling (ABM) [22,23] and network models [24,19]; however, de Weck et al [9] argue that much more research is required in order to address the challenges of holistic STS behaviour [9]. In general, it is infeasible to obtain an analytic expression of dynamic STS behaviour, even for simple systems, hence the trend towards computational models [19].…”

“…The final model used in this case study is the ABM simulation approach [22,23]. Unlike the HQBN model, this model simulates individual passengers (the agents) according to specified agent behaviours via rules and a defined environment and process.…”

Evaluating the Capability of New Distribution Centers Using Simulation Techniques

“…Moreover, this software is flexible for simulating various systems such as supply chain, manufacturing, processing, logistics, distribution and warehousing [7], [8]. It was also applied in many field research areas [1], [4], [5], [9], [13].…”