Düsseldorf Airport – Expansion Planning

Having an eye on the expected traffic growth, ARC ensures that the terminal infrastructure can cope with the demand.

Project Overview

With approximately 24 million passengers per year, Düsseldorf Airport is one of the biggest airports in Germany. Airport Research Center has been supporting the airport operator in the process of master planning since 1999 already. The objective of this process is to estimate the required measures and the respective investment to keep up with the passenger growth.

Services provided

The master plan is based on a traffic forecast continuously undertaken by ARC. In this context, several scenario flight schedules are derived that can be used for detailed capacity studies. Beside the expected number of passengers, the number of aircraft movements differentiated by aircraft category, destination category, and other parameters are of interest. Based on the traffic forecast, three expansion steps for different design years were worked out in the past and converted into an overall airport layout. In terms of terminal and apron planning ARC delivered a detailed analysis of the required terminal capacities within the planning horizons by using simulation technology. A special focus was set on the terminal expansion as a key element of the airport infrastructure. As the terminal evaluation also included various operative strategies, ARC was able to compare the capacity effects of building new terminal resources vs. optimizing the already existing terminal infrastructure.

Results and Benefit

ARC supported Düsseldorf Airport in the planning of demand-orientated expansion stages for the overall airport layout for different design years. With a detailed knowledge about traffic development, operational strategies and different design options, ARC supported and guided the decision making of cost-intensive terminal expansions and proposed the most efficient strategy to the client.