ACRP IdeaHub Research Projects

Objective is to develop airport-specific design guidelines and best practices for airport terminals and passenger facilities to make them accessible to all persons.

Airports are increasingly interested in bringing multi-disciplines together in a common environment to improve collaborative decision making during regular and irregular operations. Guidance on how to plan and design for these centers is needed.

How can airports set up incubators unit to create a space for innovators to solve airport problems based on challenges placed on them from different departments? Then, using the resulting solution, partner (in terms of equity) with the innovators. Help them form companies that the airport can partner with. Then market to other airports.

Guidance on holisitic master planning that goes beyond just future

facility and infrastructure that includes the sub categories such as IT,

Operations, Security and Maintenance as examples. It would also provide guidance on how to develop a "plan" for the ancillary operating areas and how important components may be rolled into a true master plan

Develop industry recommendations to safely and efficiently move most types of passengers and their baggage with minimum wait times or queueing standards at all departure decision points at the airport.

Develop airport-specific Incident Command System training courses at the ICS-100 and ICS-200 levels that meets NIMS training standards as established by the National Incident Management System Training Program.

A lot of talent goes through the terminals daily. Airports can solicit targetted feedback on specific projects and initiatives from the travelers. There is no better source or time since the customers are in the right state of mind to provide feedback that affects them.

ACRP Report 157 (Improving the Airport Customer Experience)(2017) found that airport arts programs play an important role in improving the customer experience at airports and that airports with such arts programs are among the most highly rated airports in the world. ACRP Synthesis 11-03/Topic S01-21 (The Benefits of Airport Arts Programs) surveyed and synthesized the the state of practice of airport rotating visual art... more »

The efficacy of creating a standardized credentialing system that is paperless.

Develop a guide for architects, planners and airport operators on planning and designing new low cost carrier (LCC) terminal or converting existing ones to better serve low cost carriers. Supplement existing terminal planning resources and guidelines while identifying key differences between LCC and full service terminals.

Everyone flies! Today's traveling public is more diverse than ever. U.S. airports are serving people of more countries of origin, age ranges, language groups, nationalities, ethnicities, religious groups, physical/cognitive abilities, and income brackets than ever before.

However, most airports have not done an adequate job of modernizing their communications and facilities to accommodate this diversity. Not only are... more »

Extend the findings of previous ACRP research on the variation in air travel propensity to account for a wider range of household characteristics and different subsets of the populations. Develop models and other tools to allow the airport industry to use these findings to better anticipate future changes in air travel demand and air passenger characteristics.

With increasing passenger demands for personalization, accelerated movement towards a truly seamless journey, and airlines providing amenities throughout the passenger journey, airports are challenged to consistently and regularly measure the quality of the experience in their airports. While many other hospitality industries (hotels, airlines, sports) regularly measure their customer satisfaction, airports often lag... more »

Our team aims to architecturally and financially model new ways to relieve airport congestion through the expansion of the curbside, while also allowing for new programs to monetize the landside and the airside. Our team intends to develop architectural solutions for modifying airport parking garages, providing ride share lobbies and amenities, re-programming parking garages and surface lots for alternative uses, and... more »

Airport operations from the curbside to the airspace are increasingly relying on data. Airport operators and their stakeholders are procuring airport operations suites that do not necessarily talk to each other (even within the same stakeholder/entity). The purpose of the Airport Operational Databases (AODB) is to create an Airport Information Center integrating various operational data for making them available to a... more »