ACRP IdeaHub Synthesis Topics

Create a synthesis of best practices that airports and industry professionals can consult for planning and designing airport tug/service road layout systems. Establishing industry guidelines will promote consistency and commonality while improving safety and efficiency during ramp operations.

About 15% of American adults suffer some level of fear (aviophobia). While some of them avoid flying almost totally, there are 15% that are passengers* passing through a US airport and experiencing aviophobia from boarding their upcoming flight. This fear, exacerbated to some extent by various factors within the airport's control, impacts passenger experience, their behavior before, during, and after boarding their plane.... more »

This Synthesis will document the various landside transportation data being gathered at airports, the data collection methods, the interpretation of data, and the application of data in decision-making.

Airports, especially general aviation, nonhub, and those with geographic terrain issues, have challenges with maintaining the turf and vegetation in and around the airport. The proposed Synthesis would review current airport practices for turf and vegetation management given the various constraints of manpower, equipment, funding, etc.

Effective management of a skilled workforce is essential to achieving an airport's strategic goals. This synthesis would provide airport managers with an overview of current human resources data analytics tools and techniques used for evidence-based decision making in workforce management.

This synthesis study will examine how US and International airports have responded to the capacity "crunch" caused by the current COVID crisis due to the need to provide for increased social distancing, infection testing, vaccination documentation verification, etc... Such an analysis will not only help disseminate ideas to assist airports in the short run as airports emerge from this crisis but will also provide guidance... more »

In 2020, ACRP Synthesis 108 was published based on 2018 data. This synthesis established an important (and previously unavailable) baseline about the fixed base operator (FBO) industry. Much has happened at GA airports and to business and personal flying during the pandemic.  It would be valuable to the GA airport community to reassess/update the analysis presented in Synthesis 108 and reflect on new services and business... more »

This Synthesis study will document the current state of practice of modeling the distribution of future aviation activity among airports in a multi-airport region and identify needed future research to advance the state of practice. The state of practice of how this is done has advanced very little in the past two decades, although the advent of relatively new "big data" sources of information offers promising opportunities... more »

To synthesize information on ground transportation fee structures and best practices at other airports, with an emphasis on carbon reduction. This information could be used to support innovative ground transportation fees to reduce carbon, while considering changes in travel patterns, non-aeronautical revenue, and potential social equity issues.

Efforts to reduce airport impacts on climate change potentially could benefit from the expanding toolbox of micro mobility devices including powered and unpowered bicycles in lieu of fossil fossil powered vehicles for airside logistics.  How are airports using micro mobility devices?

Advanced air mobility (AAM) is a broad concept enabling consumers access to on-demand air mobility, cargo and package delivery, healthcare applications, and emergency services through an integrated and connected multimodal transportation network. However, a number of challenges could impact AAM's growth potential, such as the public acceptance of autonomous flight, the availability of departure and arrival stations, electric/hydrogen... more »

Airport communicable disease response plans (CDRPs) may not be scalable based on differing airport size and resources and do not currently meet the needs of all key partners at Ports of Entry (PoEs)

ACRP Synthesis S20-01-24 ("Examples of Airports Providing Facility Space for Community Use") surveyed airports of all sizes and found that many airports provide space or property for parks and recreational use and that airports not currently providing such space were curious about developing such uses. The surveyed airports reported that providing land for parks and recreational use provided significant benefits, including... more »

Airports Authorities in the USA are typically operated by City, County, State, Quasi-governmental, or Privately. While government and quasi-government entities may provide employee fringe benefit packages, including pension (annuity) for tenure. With changes in the airlines and airports industry, comparing employee fringe benefits packages and offering possible solutions to improve the airports financial viability, whilst... more »

Many airport economic impact studies have been completed in the past 20 years. These studies, periodically updated, are used as one indicator of the growth and sustainability of the aviation industry as a whole and as key data to demonstrate the importance of an airport or group of airports to the economic growth of a state, region, or county. There appears to be no succinct source that documents utilization of these... more »