Air Transportation is a major contributor to international mobility and has high requirements to ensure safe and secure operations. Aircraft ground operations are impacted significantly by the current pandemic situation so that standard operating procedures need a redesign to incorporate the upcoming sanitation requirements. In particular, the passenger boarding process is challenged with requirements for physical distances between passengers, while in addition to standard cleaning, the cabin has to be disinfected after each flight. We evaluate potential alterations of these two aircraft cabin processes with respect to a pre-pandemic reference aircraft turnaround. The implementation of microscopic approaches allows to consider individual interactions and a step-wise process adaptation aiming for an efficient operational design. We find a significant extension of boarding times (more than doubled) if the physical distance rule is applied. The new disinfection process further extends the critical path of the turnaround, so we see a high impact on airport and airline operations. To compensate for the increased workload and process times, we provide an integrated cleaning and disinfection procedure with additional personnel. Our results indicate that the pre-pandemic turnaround times cannot be maintained for the same seat load, even if the process adaptations are being implemented. However, a seat allocation scheme with empty middle-seats (seat load of 67%) and the use of an apron position (additional use of rear aircraft door for boarding) enable pre-pandemic turnaround times without additional cleaning personnel. Aircraft turnarounds at terminal positions require between 10% (with additional personnel) and 20% (without additional personnel) more ground time.
This project has received funding from the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWI) within the LUFO-V project OPsTIMAL under grant agreement No 20X1711M. Further funding was received from the SESAR Joint Undertaking under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 783287 (Engage KTN). The opinions expressed herein reflect the authors' views only. Under no circumstances shall the SESAR Joint Undertaking be responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained herein.
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