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The International Civil Aviation Organization has standards for airport certification that require education and training of personnel. The American Association of Airport Executives offers accreditation and certification in airport operations and safety that can meet the needs of world-class airports. (Contains 18 references.) (SK)

Evolutionary changes in organisms are directly observable, and they can occur rapidly in the presence of strong natural selection. Here, we present the "airport ecology" to describe the rapid evolution of animals. The pygmy grasshopper Tetrix japonica exhibits significant variations in pronotum color and markings and is a good model organism for "airport ecology." There are trade‐offs in black‐spot markings in the pygmy grasshoppers; although it helps in camouflaging and reducing predation pressure, it stimulates overheating, resulting in a reduction in mating opportunities and foraging success under high solar irradiance. Therefore, the frequency of black‐spotted morphs is lower at lower latitudes than at higher latitudes along a latitudinal cline. However, in an airport where predation pressure is reduced by the removal of predatory bird populations, we predict that the frequency of black‐spotted morphs of T. japonica will be lower in habitats without predators than in those with predators at the same latitude; this demonstrates the anthropogenic effect on T. japonica polymorphism. As suggested here, predator‐free environments such as airports are valuable for illustrating the effects of anthropogenic activity on animal evolution. These findings can be extended to several other species that are found around airports and are potentially preferred by avian predators in terms of not only rapid evolution of color polymorphism but also evolution of various life‐history traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, the aviation industry is one of the significant contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. An optimum solution to this concern is the substitution of conventional electricity consumption with clean energy sources. Barren lands are available in airport sites as buffer zones. These lands can be utilized to generate electricity from clean energy sources like solar, wind, and others. This study proposed a 5 MW grid-connected solar power plant at airport sites by utilizing the substantial barren area of the airport. The targeted airports for this study are Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, Dhaka, and Shah Amanat International Airport, Chittagong, Bangladesh. Mathematical and simulation analyses have been performed for this purpose. Besides, sustainability analysis has also been incorporated for the grid-connected solar power plant. The energy efficiency varies from 18.74 to 7.79% for the Shah Amanat International Airport, and for the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, it ranges from 17.71 to 7.45%. Based on the project outcome, the revenue earned was 25% higher if the total cost was invested in power plants rather than keeping it in the bank as a deposit. On the other hand, emission analysis presented that a gross reduction of 3827.5 tons of CO 2 /MWh can be achieved from the Shah Amanat International Airport, while 3926 tons of CO 2 /MWh can be removed from the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport. Based on the sustainability analysis, the energy depletion ratio for Shahjalal Airport varies from 0.82 to 0.93, while for Shah Amanat Airport, it is in the range of 0.81 and 0.92. The findings of this study suggested that investment in grid-connected solar power plants is economically viable and environmentally benign., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

There is adequate evidence from epidemiological studies showing an association between noise exposures and incidence of cardiovascular diseases and cognitive impairment among exposed populations. This study aimed to investigate noise exposure levels in an airport region and their effects on the nearby two neighborhood communities (i.e., Al Seeb and Bawshar). To achieve this, noise levels were measured across 15 different points within the communities for more than 3 weeks at a median distance of 3.5 km from the airport runways using a sound level analyzer. In addition, we conducted an online social survey in a random sampling of a total of 913 residents who were living closer to the airport. A combination of a 5-point scale and 3-point Likert scale was used to assess the resident population's noise annoyance and the potential health impacts. The results revealed that the majority of the measured points have noise levels (55.71-65.24 L Aeq dBA) exceeding both Oman and WHO critical limits. There was a general decrease in noise levels at points further away from the runways; thus, at points 2.5, 4.8, and 8.8 km, sound pressure levels were found to be 63.08, 57.41, and 52.31 dBA, respectively. However, steady noise levels were observed throughout most of the daily (24 h) measurements indicating continual exposures. Overall, 44.6% of residents reported noise annoyance level as very high, with Al Seeb inhabitants (46%) eliciting a greater percentage of annoyance levels compared to Bawshar (5%) due to their closer proximity to the airport. Also, the noise was significantly (p ˂ 0.001) associated with sleep disturbance, insomnia, irritation, and frightening. The majority of the residents complained of an increase in insomnia (41.5%), stress (34.3%), headache (47.3%), and cardiovascular diseases (16.2%). With the question of reducing noise exposures, about 41% of the respondents have plans of relocating to distant areas with low noise levels., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Accurate aircraft turnaround time prediction is an important way to coordinate the operation time of airport ground service and improve the efficiency of airport operation. In this paper, by analyzing the aircraft turnaround operation process, a description model based on Time Transition Petri Net is proposed. The model describes the flight turnaround operation process and the logical relationship of the operation. According to the model, a dynamic prediction method of turnaround time based on Bayesian theorem is designed. According to the actual landing time of the flight, the aircraft turnaround time is predicted. The specific method is to obtain the prior probability distribution and joint distribution law of each operation link according to the flight history data, and use Shapiro-Wilke to test the prior probability distribution of each link. Based on the analysis and comparison between the actual turnaround data of a large airport in China and the forecast data proposed in this paper, the root-mean-square error 3.75 minutes and the mean absolute error 3.40 minutes can be calculated. This paper contributes to the improvement of flight punctuality rate and airport clearance level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyze the efficiency level of the airports in AsiaPacific region. By using two-stage network DEA, efficiency of the airport is decomposed into two sub-procedures: operations and revenue efficiency. Regression and non-parametric statistical testing were performed to test research questions regarding internal and external factors determining the difference in efficiency levels across the airports. It was shown that AsiaPacific airports have low efficiency in revenue-generating stage, leading to low efficiency overall. Also, several statistically significant factors were identified in terms of determining airport efficiency levels, providing implications for airports in terms of setting managerial strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how geography matters for the location of industries in East Asia, employing regression analyses on a novel and comprehensive regional GDP dataset. This study examines how geography affects industrial location patterns, particularly the role of infrastructure, such as ports and airports. This paper analyzes the current economic geography of East Asia using the novel dataset. The regression analyses utilize location quotients as the dependent variable and incorporate explanatory variables, such as domestic/foreign market access, per capita income, population density, and distance-based dummies for ports and airports. The findings reveal that the determinants of industrial location differ significantly across industries. The relative importance of domestic versus foreign market access and proximity to ports and airports varies across sectors. The results imply that countries/regions cannot easily host industries of their choice, as different industries require distinct locational characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why is it so difficult to find the right people to work in aviation security jobs and retain them, especially post-COVID-19? And how can we make these jobs attractive (again)? While this paper focuses on security screeners, most of the points can be extrapolated to aviation security staff, and airport staff in general. This paper takes the view that most of the reasons why we are facing staff shortages in airports were already present before the pandemic but were accelerated and amplified by it, with an additional worsening factor due to the unexpectedly quick and steep restart in passenger flights. It discusses the 'old' mindset and the fact that it cannot continue to prevail and should be replaced by a more positive, quality-oriented, human-centric one. To substantiate these opinions, the paper uses the findings of a European Union (EU)-funded project on skills and labour shortages intelligence (the INTEL project1) led by the Private Security Social Partners, illustrated by three business cases and various sources of information on best practice in attracting the younger generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sub-Saharan African airports are struggling to meet the increasing demand for air travel generated by the region's growing economies. With their budgets spread over a range of infrastructure expansion programmes, including airports, governments have started to look at privatisation as an attractive option for shifting airport development and operations to the private sector. This paper describes the options available to airports, looks at how governments can optimise their financial returns, and examines at the advantages and disadvantages of public--private partnerships. The paper is based on the author's presentation at the ACI's World/Africa Annual General Assembly in Marrakech in November 2011. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropogenic climate change contributes to increased frequency and intensity of droughts, wildfires, storms, coastal sea level rise, and population displacements, in addition to causing lung and cardiovascular diseases from the emission of Criteria Air Pollutants (CAPs). The aviation sector is estimated to contribute 2%–3% of global anthropogenic Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. This excludes GHG emissions from airport operation and maintenance activities due to limited research in the area. This systematic literature review examined the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) carried out by previous studies on the environmental impacts of airport operation and maintenance activities. This allows to assess existing literature on the impacts of these activities; identify knowledge gaps in LCA based on the findings of the review; and propose areas for further research and improvement in mitigating the environmental impacts of airport operation and maintenance activities. A total of 11 papers were selected for thematic analysis and narrative synthesis following a systematic review process based on the research question which yielded a total of 263 peer‐reviewed research articles and dissertations on the topic. The findings of the review showed that knowledge gaps exist in the LCA of environmental impacts of Auxiliary Power Units (APU) and Ground Support Equipment (GSE) operations in the airport during aircraft turnaround time. Further research is suggested in the use of feasible and affordable alternative energy sources (electricity, compressed natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, and hydrogen) at airports to reduce the environmental impacts associated with petrol‐ and diesel‐powered GSE and gate operations at airports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large‐size high‐resolution floating 3D light‐field display in air remains a challenge. Here, touchable floating 3D image light‐field displays in the air are demonstrated. A novel catadioptric retroreflector (CR) floating device in the floating3D light‐field system is proposed. The floating 3D light‐field image constructed is aberration‐suppressed. The luminance and the contrast of the image are substantially improved in a 90‐degree viewing angle. A spectrophotometer is utilized to measure the retroreflective efficiency of the CR device. The average retroreflective efficiency is 80.1%. A beam quality analyzer is utilized to measure the beam spot quality, and the image quality can satisfy the requirements of human eye observation. A telecentric retroreflector (TCRR) is proposed to suppress non‐retroreflected light without sacrificing the viewing angle. A contrast transfer function is used to evaluate the optical performance of the TCRR. To improve the 3D image source, the relationship between the root mean square of the voxels and the 3D image quality is discussed, and an aspheric lens array is designed to reduce aberrations. The peak signal‐to‐noise ratio of the floating 3D image increases from the original 15 dB to 30 dB. A clear floating high definition 3D image with a floating distance of 60 cm and a viewing angle of 70° is achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Journal of Airport Management's editorial highlights several papers on various topics related to airport management. The first paper discusses the challenge of reducing Scope 3 emissions in airports and proposes solutions in aircraft operations, ground transportation, and construction. Another paper emphasizes the importance of providing a good passenger experience through targeted information and updates. The third paper explores the use of data and artificial intelligence to improve airport operations. The fourth paper discusses the redevelopment of Nassau Airport to meet the needs of a tourism-dependent country. The fifth paper showcases sustainability initiatives taken by Christchurch International Airport. The sixth paper examines the lessons learned from building a new hub airport in Salt Lake City. The seventh paper addresses the challenges of attracting and retaining staff in aviation security. The final paper discusses Groningen Airport Eelde's efforts to minimize its environmental impact, particularly in hydrogen technology. The editorial also invites submissions for future publications. [Extracted from the article]

Efficient specialized vehicle cooperative scheduling is significant for airport operations, particularly during times of high traffic, which reduces the risk of flight delays and increases customer satisfaction. In this paper,we construct a multi-type vehicles collaborative scheduling model with the objectives of minimizing vehicle travel distance and vehicle waiting time. Additionally, a three-layer genetic algorithm is designed, and the crossover and mutation operations are enhanced to address the scheduling model. Due to the numerous uncertainties and stochastic interferences in airport operations, conventional scheduling methods unable to effectively address these challenges, this paper combines improved genetic algorithm, simulation algorithm, and digital twins technology, proposing a multi-strategy scheduling framework for specialized vehicles based on digital twins. The scheduling framework utilises digital twins to capture dynamic data from the airport and continuously adjusts the scheduling plan through the scheduling strategy to ensure robust scheduling for specialized vehicles. In the event of severe delays at the airport, fast and efficient re-scheduling can be achieved. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed scheduling framework is validated using domestic flight data, and extensive experiments and analyses are conducted in different scenarios. This research contributes to addressing the optimization problem of cooperative scheduling for multi-type vehicles at airports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Airports throughout the world are remodelling, expanding and upgrading to handle increasing travel demand and Salt Lake International Airport (SLC) is no exception. In 2020, SLC opened the first new hub airport built in the USA in the 21st century. There were many challenges along the way, such as a worldwide pandemic and an earthquake with an epicentre just miles away from the airport. Perhaps the most monumental task was to build a 4 million square foot airport adjacent to an operating one. But beyond navigating construction and operations, building support for a new airport — when the existing airport was so beloved in the community — created additional challenges. SLC's communication and marketing team was tasked with crafting messages to help the community navigate this change, while also educating, informing and engaging the public. This paper discusses how, in order to provide a roadmap for communicating through the massive construction project, a Strategic Communication and Marketing Plan was developed for The New SLC Redevelopment Program that outlined goals and audiences, messaging, branding, marketing, traditional and social media and video production. The paper presents how the campaign was rooted in research and continually adjusted based on feedback and other evaluation mechanisms. The first step in developing a comprehensive communication plan was to conduct research by surveying SLC's audiences prior to undertaking a branding programme. An important research component was to identify key audiences and stakeholders, including internal audiences — such as employees and tenants — to help spread the project's message through grass-roots efforts. Once feedback from the survey was compiled, a brand was developed that resonated with the intended audiences. Just as important was to develop strategic messaging to inform audiences, while also educating and engaging. Next, determining the most effect ways to deliver the message was key, and was done through a combination of advertising, events, press conferences and traditional and social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the importance of the passenger experience at airports and the role of targeted and controlled information in improving this experience. Satisfied passengers not only return, but also make positive recommendations, which in turn has an impact on non-aviation-related revenues. The amount of available information for passengers can be enormous, which can lead to stress, but is also important for their journey and thus for their airport experience. Therefore, targeted information and updates play a crucial role in making the journey from arrival to departure seamless and enjoyable. The paper emphasises that better-informed passengers are less stressed, highlighting the need for targeted information. Modern technologies enable airports to establish direct communication channels with their passengers and integrate targeted and controlled updates into these platforms to not only provide important information, but also to respond to individual needs and requests, thus personalising the passenger experience. Furthermore, the importance of targeted and controlled information at various points in airport operations is highlighted, such as in general terminal areas, security checks and border controls. Adjusting the volume and content of announcements to the specific situation can provide passengers with a more pleasant experience. Additionally, the implementation of modern technologies, proactive communication and continuous development are crucial to providing a seamless, personalised and enjoyable experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aviation ecosystem is increasingly coming under pressure to decarbonise from the public and governments. Airports are at the leading edge of transforming their operations, alongside airlines and aerospace companies. While, however, the levers to reduce Scope 1 and 2 airport emissions are well understood, how to address Scope 3 emissions (which account for the bulk of an airport's emissions) remains a major challenge. This paper provides an overview of potential Scope 3 decarbonisation levers across aircraft operations, ground transport and infrastructure construction. The paper then assesses the potential impact on emissions, and ease of implementation of these levers, highlighting aircraft operations as the area with highest potential to reduce ecosystem emissions. Next, the paper looks at how some of these levers have been implemented in practice, based on the case study of Geneva Airport, focusing on supporting sustainable mobility, energy support for aircraft and financial incentives for airlines to use latest-generation aircraft. The paper then identifies and discusses key barriers that must be overcome, including the ability of airports to influence domains outside their direct control, competing governmental policies and need for investment, highlighting the need for collaboration between a wide range of stakeholders. Based on this, the paper suggests a number of actions that airports should take to satisfy stakeholders and catalyse the aviation ecosystem towards its goal of achieving net zero. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate prediction of taxiing time is important in ensuring efficient and safe operations on the airport surface. It helps improve ground operation efficiency, reduce fuel waste, and improve carbon emissions at the airport. In actual operations, taxiing time is influenced by various factors, including a large number of categorical features. However, few previous studies have focused on selecting such features. Additionally, traditional taxiing time prediction methods are often black-box models that only provide a single prediction result; they fail to provide effective practical references for controllers. Therefore, this paper analyses the features that affect taxiing time from different data types and forms a taxi feature set consisting of nine key features. We also propose a taxiing time prediction method based on adaptive scenario matching rules. This process classifies the scenarios into multiple typical historical scenario sets and adaptively matches the current target scenario to a typical scenario set based on quantified rules. Then, based on the matching results, a pre-trained model obtained from the corresponding scenario set is used to predict the taxiing time of an aircraft in the target scenario, aiming to mitigate the impact of data heterogeneity on prediction results. Experimental results show that compared to baseline methods, the mean absolute error and root mean square error of the proposed method decreased by 4.8% and 12.6%, respectively. This method significantly reduces the fluctuations in results caused by sample heterogeneity and enhances controllers' acceptance of prediction results from the model. It can be used to further improve auxiliary decision making systems and enhance the precise control capabilities of airport surface operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to educate airport operators in how to be better prepared for an active threat incident. The paper does not discuss preventative measures but focuses on lessons learned from a real-life incident that took place in 2017. Information included is derived from a detailed after-action report that focuses on mitigating strategies, communication methods, employee training, and business resumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of economic globalization, population, capital and information are rapidly flowing and clustering between regions. As the most important transportation mode in the high-speed transportation systems, airports are playing an increasingly important role in promoting regional economic development, yielding a number of airport economic promotion areas. To boost effective development management of these areas, accurate risk assessment through data analysis is quite important. Thus in this paper, the idea of ensemble learning is utilized to propose a big data-driven assessment model for supply chains in airport economic promotion areas. In particular, we combine two aspects of data from different sources: (1) national economic statistics and enterprise registration data from the Bureau of Industry and Commerce; (2) data from the Civil Aviation Administration of China and other multi-source data. On this basis, an integrated ensemble learning method is constructed to quantitatively analyze the supply chain security characteristics in domestic airport economic area, providing important support for the security of supply chains in airport economic area. Finally, some experiments are conducted on synthetic data to evaluate the method investigated in this paper, which has proved its efficiency and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper delves into regional airport system economics in Central Europe, with a particular focus on Slovakia, Czechia, Poland, Hungary, and Croatia. This research aimed to identify key indicators that shape optimal business models for regional airport systems by analyzing data from 24 airports between 2016 and 2019. Through cluster analysis, airports were categorized based on performance metrics, economic indicators, and ownership structures. The findings reveal distinct groupings among regional airports and shed light on critical factors influencing their operational and financial dynamics. By offering insights into the relationships between airport system characteristics and business model effectiveness, this paper aimed to provide valuable guidance for stakeholders, policymakers, and airport management teams. It facilitates informed decision-making and strategic planning for sustainable aviation infrastructure development in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research on baggage flow plays a pivotal role in achieving the efficient and intelligent allocation and scheduling of airport service resources, as well as serving as a fundamental element in determining the design, development, and process optimization of airport baggage handling systems. This paper examines baggage checked in by departing passengers at airports. The crrent state of the research on baggage flow demand is first reviewed and analyzed. Then, using examples of objective data, it is concluded that while there is a significant correlation between airport passenger flow and baggage flow, an increase in passenger flow does not necessarily result in a proportional increase in baggage flow. According to the existing research results on the influencing factors of baggage flow sorting and classification, the main influencing factors of baggage flow are divided into two categories: macro-influencing factors and micro-influencing factors. When studying the relationship between the economy and baggage flow, it is recommended to use a comprehensive analysis that includes multiple economic indicators, rather than relying solely on GDP. This paper provides a brief overview of prevalent transportation flow prediction methods, categorizing algorithmic models into three groups: based on mathematical and statistical models, intelligent algorithmic-based models, and combined algorithmic models utilizing artificial neural networks. The structures, strengths, and weaknesses of various transportation flow prediction algorithms are analyzed, as well as their application scenarios. The potential advantages of using artificial neural network-based combined prediction models for baggage flow forecasting are explained. It concludes with an outlook on research regarding the demand for baggage flow. This review may provide further research assistance to scholars in airport management and baggage handling system development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spread of the COVID-19 had profoundly affected the development of the air transportation. In order to determine the changes in air transportation volume associated with the development of the epidemic, this paper takes Southwest China as the study area. Monthly data and methods, such as the coefficient of variation, rank-size analysis and spatial matching index, were applied. The results found that: (1) during 2020–2022, there was a positive relationship between passenger volume and epidemic development, while freight volume increased for most airports in the first quarter of 2020–2022, particularly in the eastern region; (2) From the perspective of changes in air transportation volume under the development of the COVID-19, among various types of airports, the changes in transportation volume of main trunk airports were more significant than those of regional feeder airports in remote areas; (3) however, under the influence of the epidemic, main trunk airports still exhibited stronger attraction in passenger volume. That is to say, the passengers who chose to travel by air still tended to choose the main trunk airports and formed the agglomeration distribution pattern which around high-level airports in the provincial capital. Whereas the freight volume had a tendency of equalization among airports in Southwest China; (4) Over the course of time, the consistency of the spatial distribution of the number of cases and the passenger or freight volume in southwest China gradually increased. Among them, the spatial matching rate of the passenger volume and the number of COVID-19 cases was always higher than that of the cases and freight volume, which might indicate that there was a stronger correlation relationship. Therefore, it is proposed that the construction of multi-center airport system should be strengthened, the resilience of the route network for passenger transportation should be moderately enhanced, and the risk-resistant capacity of mainline airports and airports in tourist cities should be upgraded, so as to provide references for the orderly recovery of civil aviation and regional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the analysis of traditional methods of service quality evaluation and represents a new sentimental approach to airline service quality evaluation employing user-generated content. It identifies aspects of airline service that passengers react to positively or negatively using the word cloud method—a basic straightforward exploratory analysis tool. The aim is to introduce an approach that can be implemented using freely available analytical software tools and freely available data. As a case study, authors evaluated selected airlines' service quality using sentimental analysis of user-generated content. The research relied on sentiment analysis of Twitter posts related to selected airlines' service quality. The paper describes how Twitter can be used for data mining, sentimental analysis, and airline service quality evaluation. The authors analysed over 30,000 posts related to the service quality of Ryanair, Southwest Airlines, American Airlines and KLM and proposed two types of word clouds (for each individual airline) which allow more informed decisions about enhancing the service quality of selected airlines. Compared to rather expensive traditional methods of airline service quality evaluation, such as onboard surveys of airline passengers or on-site surveys of passengers at airport departure gates, the key advantages of this new approach are the availability of free data and free analytical software tools. Moreover, this approach allows analysis of the service quality of competing airlines and, thus, provides internal opportunities for comparison. The results contribute to the literature by clarifying how both positive and negative passenger feedback impacts airline service quality and airline product planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wastewater-based epidemiological surveillance at municipal wastewater treatment plants has proven to play an important role in COVID-19 surveillance. Considering international passenger hubs contribute extensively to global transmission of viruses, wastewater surveillance at this type of location may be of added value as well. The aim of this study is to explore the potential of long-term wastewater surveillance at a large passenger hub as an additional tool for public health surveillance during different stages of a pandemic. Here, we present an analysis of SARS-CoV-2 viral loads in airport wastewater by reverse-transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Feb 2020, and an analysis of SARS-CoV-2 variants by whole-genome next-generation sequencing from Sep 2020, both until Sep 2022, in the Netherlands. Results are contextualized using (inter)national measures and data sources such as passenger numbers, clinical surveillance data and national wastewater surveillance data. Our findings show that wastewater surveillance was possible throughout the study period, irrespective of measures, as viral loads were detected and quantified in 98.6 % (273/277) of samples. Emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants, identified in 91.0 % (161/177) of sequenced samples, coincided with increases in viral loads. Furthermore, trends in viral load and variant detection in airport wastewater closely followed, and in some cases preceded, trends in national daily average viral load in wastewater and variants detected in clinical surveillance. Wastewater-based epidemiology at a large international airport is a valuable addition to classical COVID-19 surveillance and the developed expertise can be applied in pandemic preparedness plans for other (emerging) pathogens in the future., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Airport security screening is a visual inspection task comprising search and decision. Problem solving is used to support decision making. However, it is not well understood. This study investigated how airport security screeners employ problem solving during x-ray screening, and how strategies change with experience. Thirty-nine professional security screeners were observed performing x-ray screening in the field at an Australian International Airport. Video and eye-tracking data were collected and analysed to explore activity phases and problem-solving strategies. Less-experienced screeners performed more problem solving and preferred problem-solving strategies that rely on visual examination without decision support or that defer decision making, compared to more-experienced screeners, who performed efficient and independent strategies. Findings also show that screeners need more time to develop problem-solving skills than visual scanning skills. Screeners would benefit from problem-solving support tools and intensified training and mentorship within the first six months of experience to advance problem-solving competencies., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

With the recent advancement in artificial intelligence, there are new opportunities to adopt smart technologies for the sorting of materials at the beginning of the recycling value chain. An automatic bin capable of sorting the waste among paper, plastic, glass & aluminium, and residual waste was installed in public areas of Milan Malpensa airport, a context where the separate collection is challenging. First, the airport waste composition was assessed, together with the efficiency of the manual sorting performed by passengers among the conventional bins: paper, plastic, glass & aluminium, and residual waste. Then, the environmental (via the life cycle assessment - LCA) and the economic performances of the current system were compared to those of a system in which the sorting is performed by the automatic bin. Three scenarios were evaluated: i) all waste from public areas, despite being separately collected, is sent to incineration with energy recovery, due to the inadequate separation quality (S0); ii) recyclable fractions are sent to recycling according to the actual level of impurities in the bags (S0R); iii) fractions are sorted by the automatic bin and sent to recycling (S1). According to the results, the current separate collection shows a 62 % classification accuracy. Focusing on LCA, S0 causes an additional burden of 12.4 mPt (milli points) per tonne of waste. By contrast, S0R shows a benefit (-26.4 mPt/t) and S1 allows for a further 33 % increase of benefits. Moreover, the cost analysis indicates potential savings of 24.3 €/t in S1, when compared to S0., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The concept of an innovative human-machine interface and interaction modes based on virtual and augmented reality technologies for airport control towers has been developed with the aim of increasing the human performances and situational awareness of air traffic control operators. By presenting digital information through see-through head-mounted displays superimposed over the out-of-the-tower view, the proposed interface should stimulate controllers to operate in a head-up position and, therefore, reduce the number of switches between a head-up and a head-down position even in low visibility conditions. This paper introduces the developed interface and describes the exercises conducted to validate the technical solutions developed, focusing on the simulation platform and exploited technologies, to demonstrate how virtual and augmented reality, along with additional features such as adaptive human-machine interface, multimodal interaction and attention guidance, enable a more natural and effective interaction in the control tower. The results of the human-in-the-loop real-time validation exercises show that the prototype concept is feasible from both an operational and technical perspective, the solution proves to support the air traffic controllers in working in a head-up position more than head-down even with low-visibility operational scenarios, and to lower the time to react in critical or alerting situations with a positive impact on the human performances of the user. While showcasing promising results, this study also identifies certain limitations and opportunities for refinement, aimed at further optimising the efficacy and usability of the proposed interface., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Airports operate in a highly-competitive and challenging environment. Therefore, in order to remain competitive, innovation is imperative for airports. This paper aims to conduct academic research into innovation at airports by reviewing studies published from 2000 to 2019 for presenting key findings. A systematic literature review was made based on scientific papers indexed in Scopus with the keywords innovation and airport in the title, abstract or keywords sections, consolidating the innovation focus, approach and degree discussed with respect to innovation areas and territorial focal points. Consequently, it was found that research on airport innovation is: (i) mainly focused on products/services, (ii) concerned with leveraging ICT (Informatıon Communication Technology), (iii) implemented ad-hoc without a consolidated strategic approach, and (iv) lacks the input of external innovation scholars and specialists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fast-moving, competitive fields often inadvertently duplicate research. In a research environment that values being first over being robust, this results in one manuscript “scooping” ongoing research from other groups. Opportunities to demonstrate the solidity of a result through coincidental reproduction are thus lost. Here, two group leaders, one the scooper and one the scoopee, discuss their experiences under PLOS Biology’s new “complementary research” policy. In this case, submission of the second article followed publication of the first by mere days. Scooper and scoopee discuss how complementary research is good for everyone by expanding the scientific reach of studies that are overlapping but not identical, demonstrating the robustness of related results, increasing readership for both authors, and making “replication” studies cost effective by creatively using resources that have already been spent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of air bearing demands further research and certain guidance. The previous technical reviews focused on specific aspects, while bibliometric analysis employed in this paper gave a general overview on air bearing field and provided clearer research interest and development trend. The publications in the field of air bearing from 1990 to 2017 based on the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) database were analyzed from the aspects of countries, institutions, research areas, journals, authors, keywords, reviews, and high cited papers, implemented by some representative and convincing indicators. The result showed that the USA held the dominant position in this field, followed by Japan and China. The University of California System held the top position in terms of total papers and h-indexes. It had shown a multi-disciplinary development trend of air bearings from the aspect of research area. Tribology related journal took high ranking of the list, in which "Journal of Tribology-Transactions of the ASME" ranked first. Bogy, D. B., made most contributions to the air bearing field, with the highest total citations and h-index. Thermal effects, foil bearing, dynamic analysis, and active compensation were hotspots. Reynolds equation, stability, optimization, load-carrying capacity, foil bearings, and aerostatic bearings were potential directions that might have greater opportunities for improvement. The improvement of air bearing requires common progress in multiple aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to provide a holistic insight into the performance of the Turkish air transportation network through complex network analysis. While many countries' airport network structures and performances have been widely studied, the rapidly growing Turkish airport structure still needs to be adequately analyzed. Therefore, this paper evaluates the structural properties of the Turkish domestic aviation network from 2012 to 2020 and compares it with worldwide practices. Design/methodology/approach: To evaluate the topological properties of the Turkish airport system, this study utilized five complex network metrics: average degree, diameter, average path length, clustering coefficient, modularity, and density index. Findings: The findings indicate that the Turkish domestic aviation network has a smaller diameter, lower average path length, decreasing clustering coefficient, and lower modularity compared to worldwide practices, which implies low robustness and flexibility. The pandemic has increased the unique paths, density index, and average degree, which implies more connectivity among airports, possibly due to mandatory flights. Practical implications: The analysis of complex networks can help evaluate network characteristics and understand their influence on the Turkish domestic network. The long-term evaluation of the airports' topological properties provides valuable insights into their structural resilience, operational efficiency, and potential for network optimization. Originality/value: This study is the first to analyze the topological structure of the Turkish airport system and compare it with worldwide practices. Moreover, it sheds light on the effects of the pandemic on airport network structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To conduct an accurate and reliable airport delay prediction will provide an important basis for the macro control of an airspace delay situation and the dynamic allocation of airspace system capacity balance. Accordingly, a method of delay prediction for target airports based on the spatio-temporal delay variables of adjacent airports is proposed in this paper. First, by combining the complex network theory, we first extract the topology of the airport network and create airport clusters with comparable network properties. Second, we develop the TS-BiLSTM-Attention mode to predict the delay per hour for airports in the cluster. As the spatio-temporal feature variables, the arrival delay of airport cluster-associated airports and the delay time series of landing airports are utilized to reach the conclusion. The experimental results indicate that the delay prediction predicated on clusters is superior to that based on data from a single airport. This demonstrates that the delay propagation law derived from cluster data based on spatio-temporal feature extraction can generalize the delay propagation characteristics of airports within clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyze two months of trajectory data for aircraft landing in five major European airports. Based on open ADS-B data from the OpenSky Network and open performance models, we enrich all trajectories with automatically detected procedure information, fuel consumption, and emissions for supported aircraft types. To assess the inefficiencies associated with holding patterns, point merges, and continuous descent operations across different airports, we propose methodologies to quantify and compare these environmental inefficiencies. Holding patterns are found to have a higher negative impact on the environment than point merge and continuous descent operations. Furthermore, the paper provides recommendations for procedure evaluations of future airports, which could help policymakers and relevant stakeholders to evaluate the environmental performances of arrival procedures based on open data and open models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]