Hong Kong International Airport –
Ground Handling Infrastructure Validation

Will the airside road network still handle the additional vehicle traffic after the terminal expansion? A CAST simulation allows to look into the future to forecast and solve potential bottlenecks.

Project Overview

At the time of the study, Hong Kong International Airport was planning to expand the airport infrastructure. In two major phases, the airport will be expanded by a new Midfield Concourse and a new terminal concourse in the north.

The questions to be answered by ARC in the scope of this project relate to the traffic of ground service equipment (GSE):

• How many additional GSE vehicles have to be expected?
• What will be the impact of the additional airside traffic on the existing airside road network?
• What is a promising strategy for transporting baggage between the existing terminal, the new midfield concourse and long term concourse?

The project was conducted in collaboration with Mott Mac Donald.

Services provided

In order to answer these questions with the best possible accuracy, ARC built a CAST Vehicle model of the airside infrastructure considering the existing terminal buildings as well as the planned expansions. The generation and distribution of the ground servicing equipment was based on real-life data. Together with the client, ARC specified detailed ground handling schemes. Traffic counts at 15 junctions at Hong Kong International Airport and journey time surveys for various routes along the airport infrastructure proved that the model represents reality to a suitable extent and could be used as valid indicator for future scenarios.

Results and Benefit

With the calibrated model, ARC could accurately forecast the additional traffic, which will happen, when the terminal expansions are in place. This put Hong Kong Airport in the position to identify potential bottlenecks and develop operation strategies long before the actual infrastructure is available. Because of the high potential of the model it was handed over to the planning consultants of Mott Mac Donald to enable them to continue studying the airside vehicle traffic for further optimization on behalf of Hong Kong International Airport.