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176 Ground Access to Major Airports by Public Transportation
service is provided from nearby communities to supplement the regional transit service that
opens later. As noted previously, the Van Nuys Flyaway service operates reduced headways
beginning at 4:45 a.m.
Perceived Safety of Transit, Particularly at Night
Given the other challenges of comparable cost and convenience, employees need to perceive
the transit service and waiting areas as safe throughout the operating hours. The provision of
well-lighted waiting areas, obvious security presence, and late night on-demand escort service
are features that can be used to help mitigate this concern.
Airport Employee Market Segments
Public transportation may be a more convenient alternative for certain groups of airport employ-
ees. The travel patterns of different market segments are discussed in the following paragraphs.
Flight Crew
Flight crew employees include pilots and flight attendants who are based in a particular city
and travel to the airport to begin their rotation or tour of duty. A tour of duty can last several
days. Therefore, their trip from the airport may come a few days after their access trip, and they
may not commute more than once a week to the airport. Overall, they constitute a significant
proportion of total airport employees but are not a large market for public transportation
because of their infrequent commuting. Many flight crew members park their cars at the airport
for the duration of their trips.
Non-Flight Crew
Airport employees who are not members of a flight crew will have a work commute of a more
regular nature. These employees have varying types of work schedules, some of which change at
specified time intervals. Some employees work additional hours on a regular basis or are subject
to non-scheduled overtime. If employees have on-airport parking privileges, parking is often free
or subsidized; however, the location of the parking may not be convenient to airline passenger
terminal locations and may require the use of shuttle bus service. These shuttle services may not
operate with the same level of service provided to passengers. The more inconvenient airport
employee parking is, the more willing employees are to use an alternative that either decreases
the amount of time they must wait for connections or increases the ease with which they can
reach their reporting locations. As is the case for other commuters, airport employees are more
sensitive to the cost of an access service, because they will be using the service multiple times
during the week.
One group of nonflight crew airport employees who are strong candidates for public trans-
portation to an airport is airport employees in the many entry-level, low-wage service jobs avail-
able at an airport (e.g., restaurants or cleaning). Because these jobs can require work commutes
at hours not covered by the regional public transportation system and because so many potential
candidates do not have access to a private vehicle, airport employers sometimes find it difficult to
fill open positions for these jobs. Low-wage employees at an airport would be very sensitive to the
cost of an airport access trip; this underscores the need for a pricing system differentiating between
air passengers and airport employees.
