Agent-Based Modelling and Simulation of Airport Terminal Operations Under COVID-19-Related Restrictions

Gregory Sanders, S. Sahand Mohammadi Ziabari*, Adin Mekić, Alexei Sharpanskykh

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedings/Edited volumeConference contributionScientificpeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has had a tremendous impact on the aviation industry, with a reduction in passenger demand never seen before. To minimize the spread of the virus and to gain trust from the public in the airport operations’ safety, airports implemented measures, e.g., physical distancing, entry/exit temperature screening and more. However, airports do not know what the impact of these measures will be on the operations’ performance and the passengers’ safety when passenger demand increases back. The goal of this research is twofold. Firstly, to analyze the impact of current (COVID-19) and future pandemic-related measures on airport terminal operations. Secondly, to identify plans that airport management agents can take to control passengers’ flow in a safe, efficient, secure and resilient way. To model and simulate airport operations, an agent-based model was developed. The proposed model covers the main airport’s handling processes and simulates local interactions, such as physical distancing between passengers. The obtained results show that COVID-19 measures can significantly affect the passenger throughput of the handling processes and the average time passengers are in contact with each other. For instance, a 20% increase in check-in time (due to additional COVID-19 related paperwork at the check-in desk) can decrease passenger throughput by 16% and increase the time that passengers are in contact by 23%.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationAdvances in Practical Applications of Agents, Multi-Agent Systems, and Social Good. The PAAMS Collection - 19th International Conference, PAAMS 2021, Proceedings
EditorsFrank Dignum, Juan Manuel Corchado, Fernando De La Prieta
PublisherSpringer
Pages214-228
Number of pages15
Volume12946
ISBN (Print)978-3-030-85738-7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021
Event19th International Conference on Practical Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, PAAMS 2021 - Salamanca, Spain
Duration: 6 Oct 20218 Oct 2021

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume12946 LNAI
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference19th International Conference on Practical Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, PAAMS 2021
Country/TerritorySpain
CitySalamanca
Period6/10/218/10/21

Keywords

  • Airport operations
  • COVID-19
  • Multi-agent system
  • Physical distancing
  • Walking behavior

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