Airport congestion mapped by catastrophe geometry

Abstract EN

Overcrowded and congested airports have emerged as one of the most visible socio-economic disorders of this decade.

As the airport managers, planners, and researchers struggle to minimize and/or control the traffic peaks, thought to be the main cause of congestion, we offer an alternative solution.

Assuming the incidence of traffic peaks to be an exogenous phenomenon and delineating the most-sensitive-to-airport capacity factors, we shall show that, very often, it takes only marginal change in such factors to alleviate the problem of congestion.

Computer-generated graphs, based on catastrophe geometry, then serve as early warning tools to the airport management.