Airports

Airport Practice

Increasingly, commercial airports have become the primary link between a community and the world of commerce. Shortfalls in capacity can have a direct effect on the well being of both the region served and the airlines which operate at an airport. To help airports realize their potential, GRA provides:

Airport Forecasts

Developed FAA's advisory circular for airport forecasting

Airport Air Services Development

	Network profit opportunities evaluations for specific services and carriers, including network: Philadelphia International Airport, the Chicago Airport System, Harrisburg, Allentown
	Potential network profit opportunities for specific services and carriers starting commercial air services: Gary, Fort Worth

Privatization and Airport Finance

Standalone finances of privatized airports: BAA Plc, Alliance Airport, Indianapolis, Harrisburg, LaGuardia and JFK Airports in New York, and other proposed facilities in the United States and abroad.

The GRA Economic Impact Model

Identifies the airport’s impact on both a large regional economy and smaller geographic sub-regions and industries: Kai Tak Replacement (Hong Kong), DFW, Baltimore-Washington International Airport, Philadelphia airports

What sets GRA apart is its ability to integrate expertise and experience from every field that affects an airport's performance. GRA maintains active practices in the economics and finance of airports, airlines, air traffic control systems and aviation regulation.

Airport Investment

Develop sophisticated cost-benefit analyses of airport expansions, including delay and environmental consequences and the benefits to carriers and other stakeholders: Philadelphia International Airport, City of New York, U.S. DOT/FAA.

	Benefit Cost Studies for FAA letters of intent and discretionary funding: San Francisco
	Sizing airport facilities using airline planning models: Houston Airport System

Airport Cost Benefit Models

Following are brief descriptions of some of the elements of the suite of GRA’s Airport Cost Benefit Models:

	Flights: Originally developed to track aircraft through the air traffic control system, the Flights model is the primary way of keeping track of aircraft movements by user type, including providing estimates of time in the airport and ATC environments.
	Full Price of Travel: Consumer Surplus measures are evaluated on a flight by flight basis using the Full Price of Travel framework, which includes money cost, and the value of access and egress time, block time, connect time, schedule delay, and delay; changes in the Full Price of Travel affect passenger demand which, in turn, allows the estimation of changes in consumer surplus.
	GRACE: GRA Code Share Evaluator is a network planning tool developed for airlines that is useful in airport cost benefit work; often airport programs affect the number of flights or type of equipment used at an airport which, in turn, affects the service offers available to consumers. GRACE is then used to estimate changes in the number of passengers in origin-destination markets utilizing flights originating or terminating at the subject airport. These changes in passenger counts are then aggregated to flight segments. The model keeps track of changes in the various time measures needed to assess changes in consumer surplus. The change in segment passengers also affects airline profitability.
	Airline Profit Model: The Airline Profit Model builds on several sub-models developed for the airline and regulatory practices. Together, the models are used to identify the minimum cost alternative available to an airline in reaction to regulatory initiatives including peak load pricing, auctions, and environmental regulations.
	Delay Models: GRA uses queuing models designed to give first order estimates of changes in delay experience due to changes in use of an airport or in its capacity. The queuing models are calibrated to simulation runs typically available for the airport. Use of the queuing model saves considerable time and money resources and allows GRA to consider a broad range of potential changes in airport demand. The model tracks delay consequences on a flight by flight basis.

Airport Pricing/Access

	Support airport and FAA reviews of airport rates and charges (Miami International Airport)
	Evaluate feasibility of airport congestion pricing (FAA, trade groups)
	Evaluate airport noise rules including Part 161 and high density rules (U.S. DOT, FAA, San Francisco International Airport, trade groups)