Airport surface access management: Issues and policies

Surface access is an increasingly important issue for airport managers. Currently, airport access is heavily reliant on private car trips. Rising demand for air travel in recent years has generated increased volumes of surface traffic at many airports, which has led to congestion on airport roads, overcrowded car-parking facilities, reduced local air quality and increased carbon emissions. If forecasts of future growth in world air passenger traffic are accurate, it is likely that this situation will worsen in the future. Subsequently, there has been growing pressure on airports to reduce the share of trips by private car and increase access by public transportation; however, private car trips provide an important source of revenue for airports via car-parking charges. Airport managers must formulate surface access policies that not only maximise capacity utilisation, but also marry various commercial and environmental goals. But this task is far from straightforward and there remain a number of key issues that airport managers must account for relating to the nature of surface access traffic, the varying requirements and characteristics of airport users, environmental concerns, car parking and the new market conditions in which airports operate. This paper presents these issues through a synthesis of the surface access literature and discusses various policies that can be employed to manage them. By highlighting the key surface access issues and exploring policies for their effective management, this paper aims to offer important lessons for airport managers.