The limited application of a common-use approach in the U.S. airport environment has inhibited the cross-utilization of facilities, in situations where it may have been useful, to accommodate passenger, baggage, and aircraft processing. Moreover, growing interest in understanding the international model for airport-provided services requires objective analysis within the unique and evolving U.S. airport/airline business environment.
The tendency to resolve facility constraints solely with brick-and-mortar expansion often has the undesired effect of being both extremely costly and cumbersome to accomplish in a timely fashion. With air traffic anticipated to continue its aggressive growth in the United States over the coming years, airports and airlines should look for alternatives to operating in the traditional manner. To this end, in-depth research is needed to fully identify and understand the financial, operational, liability, and competitive elements of common-use facilities for airports, airlines, and passengers.
The objective of this research is to develop a reference guide for airports, airlines, and other stakeholders to identify and understand the financial, operational, liability, safety, customer service, and competitive elements of a common-use approach to the utilization of airport facilities and the provision of services. The guide should provide detailed analyses and information enabling individual airports and airlines to evaluate the feasibility and applicability of implementing a common-use approach. It should also provide common practices for evaluating, implementing, operating, and maintaining common-use facilities and services. For purposes of this project, the term common-use approach shall refer to non-exclusive facilities available to more than one tenant and certain airport-provided services to tenants.
