COVID-19 arrived in the world suddenly and unexpectedly. It caused major disruptions at economical, operational and other levels. In the case of flight traffic, the operations were reduced to 10% of their original levels. The question after COVID-19 is how to restart the operations and how to keep the balance between safety and capacity. In this paper we present an analysis using simulation techniques for understanding the impact in a security area of an important airport in Latin America; the airport of Mexico City. The results allow to illustrate the potential congestion given by the implemented covid-19 restriction, even when the traffic recovers only by 25% of the pre-covid-19 traffic. The congestion can be mitigated by applying some layout changes (snake queue vs parallel queue) and when more capacity is added to the system (extra security line). The results will raise situational awareness for airport stakeholders when implementing the actions suggested by different international institutions like WHO, IATA or ICAO.
The relentless growth in Mexico City’s aviation traffic has inevitably strained capacity development of its airport, raising thedilemma between the possible solutions. In the present study, Mexico’s Multi-Airport System is subjected to analysis by meansof multi-model simulation, focusing on the capacity-demand problem of the system. The methodology combines phases ofmodelling, data collection, simulation, experimental design, and analysis. Drawing a distinction from previous works involvingtwo-airport systems. It also explores the challenges raised by the Covid-19 pandemic in Mexico City airport operations, with adiscrete-event simulation model of a multi-airport system composed by three airports (MEX, TLC, and the new airport NLU).The study is including the latest data of flights, infrastructures, and layout collected in 2021. Therefore, the paper aims toanswer to the question of whether the system will be able to cope with the expected demand in a short-, medium-, and longtermby simulating three future scenarios based on aviation forecasts. The study reveals potential limitations of the system astime evolves and the feasibility of a joint operation to absorb the demand in such a big region like Mexico City.
KLM is downsizing the full-freight cargo fleet in Schiphol Airport, for that reason it is important for the company and the airport to explore the consequences of moving the cargo transported by the full freighters into the bellies of the passenger flights. The consequences of this action in terms of capacity and requirements are still unknown. The current study illustrates how to analyse the uncertainty present in the system for identifying the limitations and potential consequences of the reduction of full freighter fleet. The options we identify for coping with the current demand is by adjusting their load factors or increase the number of flights. The current model includes the airside operation of the airport, the truck movements and the traffic that arrives at Schiphol which allows addressing the impact of uncertainties of the operation as well as the limitations and potential problems of the phasing-out action.
