Airports and airlines continue to work together to deliver cost-effective and quality services to passengers and users. As such, they seek new and effective strategies to better manage airport facilities, equipment, systems, and services. Generally, the airport operator or individual airlines maintain these facilities, equipment, systems, and services. Occasionally, they are managed and maintained by airport-airline consortiums.Airports and airlines would benefit from additional information to increase their understanding, evaluation, and participation in airport-airline consortiums.  ACRP Synthesis 31: Airline and Airport-Airline Consortiums to Manage Terminals and Equipment recently described several current consortium arrangements and concluded that the consortium model is flexible and can be adapted to fit many circumstances and requirements. 

 

 

The objective of this research was to prepare a guidebook for airport operators and airline representatives who are responsible for agreements related to airport facilities, equipment, systems, and services and who may be interested in evaluating, advocating, or forming consortiums to provide needed services. The guidebook provides a discussion of the structure, organization, governance, membership provisions, scope, administrative and operational staffing, best practices for the preparation of consortium agreements and performance standards, capitalization, and cost allocation methodology, as well as identifies areas that have been most challenging in the operation of consortiums from the airport's, airline's and operator’s perspectives.

 

STATUS: The research is published as Report 111.