APMs and airport master planning

Long range airport master planning predicts and assesses the operational growth of an airport and charts a path for the physical expansion required to accommodate it. Often, a current airport's ultimate development plan reaches well into the next century and depicts facilities of immense physical dimensions and operational complexity. The use of APM systems in long range master planning continues to provide solutions that ensure and enhance the level of service to the airport's users. This service may involve landside and airside APM systems. Landside APM systems have a primary interrelation with the Airport Layout Plan (ALP) in terms of land use and development potential. Airside APM systems have a primary interrelation with the planning of the airside gating configurations and the Central Terminal Area (CTA). As an airport's planned physical growth phases toward ultimate development, certain thresholds may be reached. First may be the paint at which physical distances, regardless of architectural configuration, exceed the ability of conventional pedestrian systems such as moving walkways to provide an acceptable level of service to connecting and originating/terminating passengers. At this threshold, conventional systems are supplemented or superseded by an APM system. A second threshold to be examined is the point at which physical distances or configurations challenge even a contemporary APM system's ability to provide an acceptable level of service. This paper examines the challenging factors which can lead to this second threshold and then explores ways to meet these challenges.