The anticipated increase in competition among airports means that there is now a greater need for strategic thinking in the airport business industry. In order to succeed, airport management will have to implement new strategic initiatives and identify their key competitive strengths. While many airports are now more active in following strategic directions, there is some deficiency and inconsistency in the literature in this regard. This research relates the theories of strategic management to the case of airports in order to explore the issue of whether the airport business industry is able to apply the different strategies adopted by other industries in order to achieve growth. The research provides an in-depth analysis into the strategies that Dubai International Airport has pursued. This carefully selected case study involves the collection of qualitative data through conducting semi-structured interviews as a primary source of information. Data collected are applied to different well-known business tools including the PESTEL Analysis, the Five Forces Model and the Resource-based View (RBV) of the firm. The research found that there are some strategic differences between the airport industry and other industries. While it is possible for airports to adopt certain strategies, some strategic theories are not very practicable for airports. While Dubai International Airport is not considered very different from other airports, there are some differentiated characteristics in its ownership and management that led it to outperform its rivals. The research proposes that there are a number of key success factors derived from four core areas that led Dubai International Airport to obtain strategic strengths over other airports. These four areas include: General Condition, Competitive Situation, Resource Acquisition and Strategic Direction. These areas are also classified as No Control, Least Control, Some Control and Most Control, respectively. This thesis contributes to the development of a best practice conceptual model that can help airport managers understand and improve their key competitive strengths and success factors.

Recently ranked Skytrax 5-Star Airport, Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) is well known for its extensive airline networks and quality supporting services. This paper is to evaluate the performance of HKIA as a leading regional aviation hub when encountering the keen competition of four other major airports in Greater Pearl River Delta (GPRD) region; all of which are within a radial distance of 100km of one another. An in-depth comparative analysis for the five GPRD airports is carried out with the application of the Aviation Hub Model and the Airport Competitiveness Index. Together with the review of the development of hub-and-spoke operation strategies, the worldwide air freedom liberalization as well as the national and regional policies, the study highlights the implications and significance drawn from the analysis upon the HKIA and four other GPRD airports. A series of feasible recommendations will be provided on the future development of their positioning and functions. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

Recently concern about aviation security has focused on the work of airport security screeners who detect threat items in passengers' luggage. An effective method of training and screening is required for improving screeners' detection abilities and performance to cope with the unreliable human performance of screening. The overall aim of this thesis is to understand and define the potential visual and cognitive factors in the task of inspecting airport passengers' X-ray luggage images, examine usability of perceptual feedback in this demanding task and develop a new method of salient regions which assist screeners to detect targets. The result of this work would obtain knowledge and skills of X-ray luggage images examination, provide insight into the design of training system and develop a method to significantly enhance screeners' detection ability. A questionnaire was developed for screeners to extract the expertise of the screening task and investigate the effect of image features on visual attention. A series of experiments were designed to understand the screening task and explore how knowledge and skills are developed with practice. Results indicated that training under time stressed conditions is recommended for ensuring adequate high detection ability in real life situation as screeners have to balance accuracy and speed in time pressure. The advantages of screeners are better detection ability and search skills which were gained by experience of the search task. Hit rate of naive people was improved with the perceptual exposure of images of threat items. However, scanning did not become efficient. It has demonstrated that detection performance and search skills are improved by the practice of frequency exposure targets in the search task and such ability partly transfer to novel targets. Learning in visual search of threat items is stimuli specific such that familiarity with stimulus and task is the source of performance enhancement. Threat items should be updated constantly and massive amount of X-ray threat objects should be employed for airport security screeners training so as to enlarge object knowledge and enhance recognition ability. Perceptual feedback of circling areas with dwell duration longer than 1000ms does not Significantly improve observers' detection ability in the airport screening task. Features of bags and threat items influence initial attention and attention allocation in the search process. Salient regions, based on the pure stimulus properties, not only contain most of targets in X-ray images but also improve observers' detection performance of high hit rate by forcing observers to scrutinize these areas carefully.

Not available / text

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

This environmental assessment document has been prepared pursuant to the requirements of Section 102 (2)(c) of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 (PL 91 -190, 42 USC 4321 et. seq.), Tide V of the Airport and Airway Improvement Act of 1982 (PL 97 -248, as amended by the Airport Safety and Capacity Act of 1987), and other laws as applicable. The format and subject matter included in this report conform to the requirements and standards set forth by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as contained principally in Order 5050.4A, Airport Environmental Handbook, but also addresses appropriate items in FAA Order 1050.1 D, Policies and Procedures for Considering Environmental Impacts.

Since its opening in 1931, the Vancouver International Airport has been a site where significant representations of the city, its geography and its population have been made. Instead of being utilitarian structures the airport terminals have been purposefully designed and decorated with art chosen specifically to communicate Vancouver's distinct qualities and culture to travelers. As culture is never static and changes continuously, the representations have also shifted over time. By considering the specific history of Vancouver's airport in conjunction with the wider history of Canadian and international airport development, patterns (such as the continuous use of symbols from native cultures to represent aspects of the colonizer's culture) and tensions (such as Vancouver's relative position as a major Canadian urban centre and the growth of visible immigrant populations) which accompany the representation of locality at the airport become apparent. Henri Lefevbre's understanding of space as an active social product, David Harvey's assessment of the impact of globalization upon the local and Siegfried Kracauer's interpretation of architecture as illustrative of broad social trends underpin my analysis. The adoption,of an historical and theoretical framework within this thesis is directed at developing an interpretation of the current art program at the Vancouver International Airport which can move beyond the point where debate regarding "authenticity" and the agency of the native artists or their communities constricts the discussion. Through an examination of airport design, both theoretical and actual, the genesis of and reactions to art programs executed at the airport since the 1960s, as well as aspects of the city's social history, I illustrate that the current art program is representative of more than a superficial thematic strategy. Instead, it points to a complex and ongoing struggle to define and represent Vancouver both to its residents and the rest of the world.

There has been very little research in the area of air cargo demand analysis and forecasting. This thesis attempts to investigate the application of gravity models to air cargo. Using international export volumes from Vancouver International Airport in 1998, a gravity model was built. The inclusion of tariffs as an impedance factor allowed testing of the effect of tariffs as predicted by gravity models. The results were consistent with international trade theory that tariffs provide a barrier to international trade. Further, a comparison is made between aggregate and disaggregate models (across commodities). It was found that aggregation eliminates commodity specific characteristics. In using the gravity model, there are two adjustments which need to be made to reduce the bias in the model: firstly, adjustment is necessary to the bias inherent in the constant term of a log-linear model; and a further adjustment is required when forecasting actual levels rather than log levels. Even after adjustments for both types of bias, the gravity model did not produce accurate forecasts. The aggregate model produced better forecasts than the disaggregate model, but both sets of forecasts did not accurately predict the actual volumes transported. This could be as a result of the stable nature of the variables included in the model, which tend to change very slowly over time. Further, it is apparent that other additional explanatory variables should be included in the models to better capture the short-term changes in air cargo.

Plečiantis oro uostams Lietuvoje, spaudoje, internete padaugėjo skundų dėl Kauno oro uosto veiklos. Šiame darbe naudojant pakankamai naujus patirties marketingo įgyvendinimo būdus, planuojama pagerinti keleivių patirtį Kauno oro uoste. Todėl darbo tikslas – parengti patirties marketingo įgyvendinimo projektą Kauno oro uoste. Darbe analizuojama mokslinė literatūra, statistiniai duomenys, įvairūs antrinių duomenų šaltiniai. Pirmas skyrius skirtas teoriniam patirties marketingo pristatymui. Antrajame skyriuje analizuojami oro uostų veiklos ypatumai bei atlikti tyrimai patirties marketingo srityje. Siekiant parengti projektą, suformuojama patirties marketingo tyrimo metodika Kauno oro uoste. Atlikus tyrimą sudaromas keleivių patirties žemėlapis, pagal kurio duomenis rengiamas patirties marketingo įgyvendinimo projektas Kauno oro uoste. Atlikus teorinę analizę ir padarius tyrimą, paaiškėjo, kas kuria didžiausią neigiamą keleivių patirtį, todėl buvo parengtas pirmasis patirties marketingo įgyvendinimo Kauno oro uoste projektas – „Informacijos sklaidos projektas“. / While airports in Lithuania are expanding, in press, on the Internet you can find more and more complaints about Kaunas airport. Using fairly new methods of experience marketing this paper aims to prepare experience marketing implementation project in Kaunas airport. The analysis of research literature, articles, statistical data and various secondary data has been done. Theoretical approach to experience marketing has been discussed in the first chapter. In the second chapter airports’ activities and results of experience marketing researches have been presented. In order to prepare the project, a new research has been done at Kaunas airport. After the research a new passenger experience map has been made. The project is prepared according to the map. After analysis of theory and research, it is obvious, what is creating the most negative experience at Kaunas airport. The first project prepared for Kaunas airport to implement experience marketing is called “The Spread of Information”.

Pateikiami trys modulinių laukiamojo baldų variantai. Pagrindinė medžiaga, iš kurios padaryti baldai, yra plastikas. Plastikiniai baldai patogūs, juos paprasta prižiūrėti, lengva pernešti iš vienos vietos į kitą, ir jie yra pigesni. Norint pakeisti baldų išdėstymą nekils problemų. Šiame projekte nėra prisirišama prie plano, moduliniai baldai projektuoti oro uosto laukiamojo salei. Tačiau juos galima pritaikyti ir kitose viešose erdvėse kaip traukinių, autobusų stotis ir t.t. Atrinktos penkios idėjos, iš kurių trys galutinai išplėtotos. Visuose trijuose variantuose suprojektuotas šviečiantis modulis, centrinis akcentas su vandeniu, ir galimybe atsisėsti. Pirmajį variantą sudaro šviečiantis elementas bukam kampui, metalinis elementas stačiam kampui, plastikinis elementas smailiam kampui, plastikinė kilpa, šiukšliadėžė, centrinis akcentas. Centrinis akcentas jungia grindis ir lubas, jame įrengtas LED apšvietimas, tekančio vandens atkarpa. Antrajį variantą sudaro koriuko formos elementai – elementas atsisėsti be atlošo, šviečiantis elementas atsisėsti su atlošu, elementas su jame pasėta žole, šiukšliadėžė, centrinis akcentas. Centrinis akcentas suprojektuotas iš skirtingų dydžių korio formos marmuro plokštumų, jame įrengtas apšvietimas ir vandens telkinys. Trečiajį variantą sudaro sėdimoji dalis, šviečiantis elementas, šiukšliadėžė, centrinis akcentas. Centriniame akcente įrengtas fontanas, padaryti platesni fontano kraštai, kad būtų galima prisėsti. Po sėdimosios dalies... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Three variations of the modular lounge furniture are presented. The main material used to make furniture is plastic. Plastic furniture is comfortable and cheaper. It is easy to handle and move from one place to another. Therefore the change of furniture arrangement does not cause any problems. This project does not accurately follow the plan; modular furniture was designed for the airport departue lounge, but it can be adjusted to use in other public space, such as ralway or bus station, etc. Five ideas were chosen and three of them were developed till the end. All three variations include a luminous module as a central part with water and sitting possibility designed. The first variation consists of luminous element for a blunt corner, metal element for a sharp corner, plastic element for an acute corner, plastic loop, litterbin and a central part. Central part ties in a floor with a ceiling, it includes LED ilumination and running water segment installed. The second variation consists of the comb form elements – sitting element without a backrest, luminous sitting element with a backrest, element with a grass inside it, litterbin and a central part. Central part is designed using different sizes of the comb form marble flats with illumination and water body installed. The third variation consists of the sitting part, luminous element, litterbin and central part. Central part includes a fountain with wide edges to sit on. Illumination is installed under the sitting part.