Is today’s infrastructure sufficient to facilitate tomorrow’s flights? Is it possible to use the existing infrastructure in a more efficient way? These and more questions can be answered with the Gate Capacity Manager. The tool is not a day-to-day gate planning tool, but is used for analysis of current and future gate capacity.

The GCM has been developed in close cooperation with Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. The GCM supports in the decision making about the capacity of gates and remote aircraft positions (stands) and the use in daily operation. Decisions about extensions, adjustments and other use of stands can be supported at different levels:

• Strategic decision making on the long term (5-20 years), for example decisions about new piers and platforms, allocation of carrier segments in certain areas.
• Tactical decision making on mid term (1-5 years), for example decisions about investments in extensions or adjustments within the current infrastructure. Or analyzing the impact of changes in allocation rules.
• Operational decision making on the short term (0-1 years), for example a quick analysis of the season forecasts, influence of work on the platforms and of disturbances in the operation.

Benefits for Schiphol Airport

• Optimization of internal processes without expensive investments in capacity extension.
• Possibility to decide about just-in-time investments in capacity. Investments can be done when it is really required; this will keep the visit costs as low as possible.
• Possibility of integral analysis by using the GCM in combination with already existing baggage and passenger simulation models.

To realize reduction of visit costs, Schiphol Airport wants to accommodate a growing number of aircraft movements while minimizing the investments in gate capacity. This requires an efficient management of airport processes. Design and use of infrastructure is an important issue! The GCM makes it possible to analyze these capacity issues in a quick and easy way.

How it works
The GCM makes use of a flight schedule for a certain day and the available capacity of stands. Based on a user defined rule set, the GCM assigns the flights to the available stands. It evaluates all rules in priority order (requirement, preference, avoidance) and assigns flights to stands with the highest possible score. When necessary the aircrafts will be towed to a remote stand. The resulting gate planning can be represented in a Gantt Chart or in Excel graphs. The GCM works together with other ED Airport modules like the PaxBaxGenerator and passenger simulator PaxSim. This makes is possible to evaluate the influence of a certain gate planning on passenger and baggage flows.