Project Overview

The 2016 UEFA European Championship was held in France with 5 matches played at the stadium of Bordeaux. This means a significant increase of passenger volume and flight movements at Aéroport de Bordeaux (BOD) during this time period. In preparation for this exceptional situation BOD had identified the need for developing a concept to handle the additional demand and to avoid issues in the terminal building. EUROCONTROL commissioned Airport Research Center to perform a study of the 5 match days to check the current planning concept for passenger handling and optimize it if required.

Services provided

The main objective of the project was to support Bordeaux in the organisation and planning of the operations during the EURO 2016. For this ARC performed a simulation study of all capacity-critical processes within the passenger terminal. As starting point, ARC organized an on-site data measurement campaign, which was performed by Bordeaux Airport to collect the required information. To ensure a valid model, automatic passenger tracking data was used to calibrate the model set-up.

In order to help Bordeaux Airport to prepare for the possible events during the EURO the main objective was to show a range of possible situations and scenarios. The main factors describing the different scenarios were:

• Number and scheduled time of EURO fan flights
• Bus schedule of fans arriving at the airport after the end of the match
• Requirements of extraordinary border control during the time of the EURO

It was planned to transport fans with busses directly from the stadium to the airport after the end of the matches. The number, size and schedule of these busses were identified as main driver for the demand of fans at the departure facilities after the matches. Thus the focus of the defined and analysed scenarios was set on the definition and evaluation of possible bus schedules.

Results and Benefit

The simulation results of all match days were evaluated, interpreted and discussed to show Bordeaux Airport possible critical situation. Optimisation and mitigation measures were developed and explained in detail.  This helped the airport to focus on the main issues and also showed them that waiting times and queues could occur and how they could be reduced with operational measures. In the course of the study Bordeaux Airport was involved the first time with a passenger flow simulation software. It showed them the advantages of testing possible situations and scenario beforehand to be prepared for the upcoming events.