Policy and Planning Issues Roadmap Report (2019)

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Policy and Planning Issues Roadmap Report 22 B1 Strategic Theme 1: Landside Connectivity B1.1 Thought Leader Forum • Landside Connectivity, although the most frequently identified issue for large, metropolitan airports in our issue inventory, was not directly mentioned as a top issue at the Forum. However, the focus on “Customer Experience” certainly has potential application for airports that are struggling with getting customers to and around the airport. B1.2 ACRP Research • ACRP Report 35: Planning for Offsite Airport Terminals provides a good summary of the regulatory and business issues, many of which are still in place. Given recent developments in ground transportation, strong consideration should be given to updating this publication. • On-going ACRP Research 03-47 “Rethinking Airport Parking Facilities to Protect and Enhance Non-Aeronautical Revenue” takes this further and explores long-term solutions including repurposing, renovating, or redeveloping parking facilities making best use of airport real estate to generate non-aeronautical revenues. • ACRP Synthesis 84: Transportation Network Companies: Challenges and Opportunities for Airport Operators reviews the challenges and opportunities TNCs present for airport operators, noting that adverse effects TNCs bring are expected to become more significant as popularity for these services increases. • Expanding from ACRP Synthesis 84: Transportation Network Companies: Challenges and Opportunities for Airport Operators, on-going ACRP research ACRP 01-35 “Transportation Network Companies (TNCs): Impacts to Airport Revenues and Operations” highlight the need for airports to manage landside traffic and plan for future technologies such as AVs and their potential impacts traffic within the airport campus and to surrounding surface access networks. B1.3 Other Industry Projects, Publications, and Research • “Repurposing facilities – What do we do with excess space in existing CONRACs and parking garages” was cited under Challenges and Opportunities for the Airport Business Model. This is an issue we have heard from airports considering building new garage capacity. Some cited, for example, building the first floor of garages with higher ceilings to better allow for multiple B Literature Review

Policy and Planning Issues Roadmap Report 23 purposes including the construction of offices and/or pick-up and drop-off of airport passengers. • Delays and congestion, as cities grow, can impact how airports manage or influence the management of surrounding surface access networks. “Modern airport management – fostering individual door-to-door travel” explores expanding the airport collaborative decision-making concept to include surface access networks, citing a recent German Aerospace Centre project. Similarly, Auckland Airport in New Zealand has also worked with the New Zealand Traffic Agency to monitor and manage real-time traffic conditions. • TNCs have changed how airports need to manage landside traffic. “Transportation Network Companies: Challenges and Opportunities for Airport Operators” explores how airports have been impacted by this and the tools to manage TNCs. – Detailed review of the revenue impacts to airports as passengers’ switch from driving to/from airports and using traditional airport parking products to using TNCs to access airports, “Airport drop-off and pick up charges in the United Kingdom: Will they come to the United States?” reviews drop-off and pick up charges as a potential option to manage the reverse declining airport non-aeronautical transportation revenues. – “Dynamic Pricing for Reservation-Based Parking System: A Revenue Management Method” reviews different parking pricing schemes, offering insight for airport operators in reviewing how airports can improve its parking products to generate more non-aeronautical revenues. • In addition, “Autonomous Ground Transportation Vehicles for Passenger Transport to/from the Airport” was cited under the Emerging Topic of Impacts of Emerging and Innovative Technologies. With our discussions, it was clear that AVs are under review for several reasons, including incorporating technological innovations, promote sustainability and to potentially increase capacity using driverless vehicles to reduce headways (enabled by a control center). • Aside from increasing capacity, AVs may also increase traffic to airport drop-off areas and surrounding infrastructure. “Cooperative Autonomous Vehicles: An Investigation of the Drop- Off Problem” investigates approaches to address this problem, offering airport planners potential solutions in resolving future traffic management challenges. B2 Strategic Theme 2: Airside and Terminal Planning B2.1 Thought Leaders Forum • Several of the issues identified in the Thought Leaders Forum had resonance with our process of issue identification, including for airside and terminal planning. These include Customer Experience issues such as the familiar issues of wayfinding and electronic signage; Impact of Emerging and Innovative Technologies including beacons and smart phone apps; virtual reality applications for airfield planning, management and inspections; and new technologies for retail operations.

Policy and Planning Issues Roadmap Report 24 • Airport Sustainability was also identified in the Forum and issues such as operational efficiency and program reporting inform airside and terminal planning. B2.2 Other Industry Projects, Publications, and Research • The push for biometrics, trialed by Delta in Atlanta and by various international carriers at Los Angeles International (e.g., British Airways, Lufthansa), is expected to change passenger processes and airport operations. Given recent development in this area, little research has been done to review considerations for airports. Potential changes to privacy regulations (i.e., General Data Protection Regulation in Europe) may also impact how this technology will exist in airports. • “Commercial Spaceports: Building the Foundation of a Commercial Space Transportation Network” offers a review of the development of spaceports, launch site infrastructure, regulations and standards, and future research requirements. • Continuous climb operations (CCO) can improve operational efficiency by providing significant economy of operations and environmental benefits. However, this may impact airspace capacity, which may be especially problematic for high-density traffic airports. The “Impact of continuous climb operations on airport capacity” quantifies this impact and how CCO can still operate in high-density traffic airports. • Emerging technologies like electric aircraft offer opportunities and challenges for airports. “Electric Aircraft of the Horizon – An Airport Planning Perspective” reviews these and the roles airport may play, such as potential shifts to generating energy and transmission. • In the latest “National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (2019-2013)” report, the FAA finds that an estimated need of $35.1 billion in projects are required for AIP-eligible projects between 2019 to 2023, up 7% since 2016. It also finds that while the national airport system is “safe, convenient, and well maintained” (p. v), the FAA also recognizes that some airports are experiencing consistent delays, in part due to growing constraints in terminal and landside areas. • The REDAC reviews the FAA’s research portfolio, providing input on the areas the agency should prioritize in future research. It its biannual meeting in Spring of 2018, the subcommittee recommends further research in safety and design standards for commercial spaceports as well as new categories of aeronautical vehicles (e.g., UAS and commercial space vehicles), illustrating the potential for disruption and impacts to the civil aviation industry. • The FAA is expected to undertake research on Electrical Vertical Take-Off and Landing vehicles. The first phase of its research aims to understand performance capabilities, while future phases are expected to develop recommendations and standard operation practices.

Policy and Planning Issues Roadmap Report 25 • The FAA is working to implement detection systems to improve safety and prevent drone disruptions around airports, including developing a Concept of Operations and research to counter UAS in the airport environment. The ACRP has also previously conducted research on UAS, ACRP Report 144: Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) at Airports: A Primer (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2015). The continued developments on UAS and their respective impacts to airports and airspace will be a key research area moving forward. B3 Strategic Theme 3: Air Service Management B3.1 Thought Leaders Forum • Air Service Management was not addressed specifically during the Forum. Some general points about improving cooperation with airlines, gathering additional data on passengers, and promoting the airport brand all could be enablers in assisting with Air Service Management and perhaps will be addressed should the Forum topics become more granular and operationalized through ACRP problem statements. B3.2 ACRP Research • Recently completed ACRP research, “Air Service to Small Communities in a Deregulated Industry” examined the current state of small community air services. Citing data from previous ACRP Report 142 “Effects of Airline Industry Changes on Small- and Non-Hub Airports,” it concludes that overall deregulation has concentrated traffic to hubs, with small- hub and non-hub airports experiencing the largest declines in traffic. Industry consolidation and push for efficiencies seem to further drive this phenomenon (i.e., Delta’s hub closure of Memphis, United’s closure of Cleveland as a hub immediately after its merger with Continental). • ACRP Research Report 190: Common Performance Metrics for Airport Infrastructure and Operational Planning is an operational guide to inform key performance indicators for airport operators, with an aim to improve efficiency and decision-making. B3.3 Other Industry Projects, Publications, and Research • The evolution of low-cost carriers in Europe has been different than that of North America. Most low-cost carriers in Europe do not offer connections, even between their own services, focusing on offering only point-to-point, origin and destination services. As a result, self- connectivity has been a growing trend in Europe. This evolution is reviewed in the “Evolution of the European Network and Implications for Self-Connection.” Some airlines and airports have responded by offering connection services, such as London-Gatwick with GatwickConnects. • London Gatwick and other case study examples, including Barcelona, are also reviewed in “The scope for low-cost connecting services in Europe – Is self-hubbing only the beginning?” This paper also assesses the potential for self-connections in Europe over time.

Policy and Planning Issues Roadmap Report 26 B4 Strategic Theme 4: Airport Business Models B4.1 Thought Leaders Forum • Airport Business Models closely aligns with the Forum’s Challenges and Opportunities for the Airport Business Model. The most obvious finding is that respondents both discussed the financial issues airports are experiencing, which are causing airports to examine new revenue sources and ways of addressing operational expenditures, as well as looking for new ways to deliver airport projects. For the Forum, examining European airport management models was addressed, as it was in a different way for this project’s research inventory when two respondents noted that VFM concepts, studying the best way to procure major capital projects, was a European best practice only used idiosyncratically in the U.S. B4.2 Other Industry Projects, Publications, and Research • With state and local governments assuming more responsibility in response to the declining federal role, particularly reduced funding support (as discussed in the Transportation Research Board’s “Critical Issues in Transportation” in its latest November 2018 publication), states and local governments have turned to private partners for support. ACRP 03-46 “Implementing Airport Privatization: Guidance for Airport Decision Makers” reviews private- sector participation in U.S. airports. Meanwhile, “Designing terminals that offer the flexibility to adapt quickly and cost-effectively to evolving processes” reviews the P3 process of Bermuda’s airport and some lessons learned from the project. • One other principal difference between the two is that our inventory includes issues related to GA airports and FBOs, both how airports manage and/or lease the facilities and how users are charged for services provided. B5 Strategic Theme 5: Governance and Community Engagement B5.1 Thought Leaders Forum • Issues identified by Forum participants in the area of Airport Sustainability have relevance including the “License to Grow” concept, especially the need for consultation with diverse stakeholders. Also included would be “telling the airport” story and communicating messages about the airport’s sustainability program. As addressed in our research inventory, however, these issues might differ depending on whether an airport, terminal or other asset is managed through a public agency or by a private concern. B5.2 ACRP Research • In the on-going (active) ACRP 03-43 “Integrating Airport Ground Access and Metropolitan Surface Transportation Planning Efforts”, research is currently active to examine examples of aligning airport ground access planning and surface transportation planning processes, which need to be joint efforts between airport operators and regional transportation planning authorities.