Airport facilities are designed after a careful study of the existing and future requirements. For example, before a terminal building is designed, the existing passenger movements as well as the growth of passenger movements are studied and the design is done so that the terminal building is usable for a maximum reasonable number of years after construction. Before a new apron is built, the need for an additional apron and the demand for more parking slots as the air traffic grows, is taken into account.

Despite these efforts to design systems that would withstand the demand of future requirements, the capacity of any airport facility would eventually be exceeded at some stage. This is because air transport is an ever expanding industry with more and more aircraft being put to commercial use and more and more airlines entering the business. There is an unprecedented demand for the transport of passengers and goods by air. Passenger and cargo volumes are growing at a very fast rate and airports and airlines are finding it equally difficult to cater to the demand. Therefore the need to expand existing facilities and the need to construct new facilities would always exist.

National development plans of every state also add to this need. If a certain province of a country is being developed with new towns being set up and lot of people taking up residence over there, sooner or later the need would be felt for a new airport for that province. When industries are set up and developed in various parts of a country there would be a corresponding need to transport raw material and finished goods. The need for air cargo would arise.

An airport layout plan  (Picture source: www.adturtle.biz)

Development is not limited to expansion and new construction alone. Advancements in technology also create the need for development. If a new type of navigational aid is introduced and if it turns out to be a very reliable one, all airlines would start using it and all ANSP would be compelled to support it by providing the same aid within their designated regions. There would soon be a demand for its use all over the world. A new type of security screening equipment that uses more effective technology would create the need to replace all existing screening equipment although they may be still serviceable. In fact, technology advances at such an alarming rate that even developed countries find it a challenge to cope and keep abreast with.

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Due to these reasons, airport service providers and air navigation service providers must constantly focus on developing their facilities and systems. There should be dedicated personnel who are skilled in forecasting to foresee future requirements. Thereafter, design should be carried out to expand existing facilities and to set up new facilities.

Airport facility development is a highly specialized function and in most countries, service providers do not have their own teams and outsource the function either fully or partly to expert teams acting as consultants. However, many states have realized the need to have permanent teams to perform this function so that the long term interests of the state are properly taken into account.

Our company has a dedicated team to handle the airport and facility development function. This team works in close cooperation with the other key players of the industry, consult the national development requirements, gather data on the usage of existing facilities, make forecasts on future requirements and formulate projects for development. These projects are generally very large and complex in nature, involving heavy investments. Therefore they are often included as parts of the overall national development plans and implemented in the form of national development projects.

So now, we have completed studying all the functions carried out by our company. To recall, at the beginning of the lesson we stated that for somebody looking from outside, our company would appear to be performing the following functions.

• Airport service function
• Air Navigation Service function
• Airport and facility maintenance function
• Airport and facility development function

We now have a good understanding of all these functions. Now we are in a position to follow the next lesson which will give us more details about our company.

But before that, we can undergo a self-evaluation to check whether we have understood the lesson properly. This evaluation is optional.

              Click here to undergo the self-evaluation >>

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- End of Lesson 2 -