Airport employees ground accessibility: review and assessment

With the increased globalization and industrialization, the popularity of air travel is rapidly increasing in both developed and developing countries. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the number of passengers worldwide is projected to reach 7 billion per year by 2034 with 3.8% average annual growth from 2014. That is double as many as the 3.5 billion in 2015. In Australia, the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) forecasted the number of air passenger movements through all Australian airports to increase by 3.7% a year over the next 20 years, more than doubling from 135.1 million in 2010–11 to 279.2 million in 2030–31. Consequently, airports are also expanding rapidly in terms of employees and infrastructures to accommodate this huge growth. Increases in air passengers, airport employees, and meeters and greeters are creating significant pressure on airport ground access road networks. In addition, excessive car use for access to and egress from airports amplifies the severity of this issue. Hence, extensive Ground Transport Plans are designed by almost all major airports in the world, to manage the access and egress behaviour of these three airport travel segments. Most previous studies focused on air passengers’ travel behaviour; very few studies investigated the behaviour of airport employees’ journey to work. The main objective of this study is to identify the primary factors affecting airport employees’ access behaviour based on previous literature. In addition, the study provides a comprehensive understanding of airport employees’ mode choice models. Finally, the study reveals the potential concerns that need to be further investigated to fathom the ground access behaviour of airport employees