| Author: | Tam, Mei-ling |
| Title: | Evaluating the demand and service quality of ground access modes and terminal facilities of Hong Kong International Airport |
| Degree: | Ph.D. |
| Year: | 2006 |
| Subject: | Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations Hong Kong International Airport Airports -- Access roads -- China -- Hong Kong -- Evaluation Access to airports -- China -- Hong Kong -- Evaluation Airport terminals -- China -- Hong Kong -- Evaluation |
| Department: | Department of Civil and Structural Engineering |
| Pages: | 1 v. (various pagings) : ill. (chiefly col.), col. maps ; 30 cm |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) is not only an infrastructure for transporting air passengers to and from worldwide destinations. It also equipped with a variety of services/facilities to give air passengers an enriching experience when passing through it. Air passenger traffic at HKIA is experiencing ever-increasing levels of demand due to a variety of influences, such as worldwide economic growth and the strong focus on the development of Hong Kong's tourist industry. The traffic expansion has lead to demand overload on both airport ground access transport system and airport terminal facilities. To deal with this overload, improvements to the existing passenger terminal facilities and the means whereby prospective air passengers access the airport are essential. This necessitates an up-to-date understanding of passenger behaviors and needs. This research study makes four contributions to existing transport research knowledge, the first is an assessment of the magnitude of time, additional to the time allowance predicted by departing air passengers for ground access to HKIA. This additional time is commonly known as a "safety margin" and in this research has been newly defined as the difference between departing air passenger preferred arrival time at the airport passenger terminal for check-in and their expected arrival time. This is different from the conventional definition, in which the safety margin is defined as the additional time allowed by the traveler in anticipation of a journey time greater than the mean travel time. The definition difference arose to allow for the fact that departing air passengers visit the airport infrequently and the mean travel times by various modes are not well known to most of them. The survey results reveal that, to cope with the large travel time variations of franchisee! buses, departing air passengers transported by this mode usually allow a larger safety margin than those traveling on other mode choices. Business or long-haul air passengers were likewise found to favor the allowance of a larger safety margin but for different reasons. In this case, the possible motivation was to avoid loss of business and time wastage, if flights were missed. The second contribution of this research is the calibration of discrete choice models for understanding departing air passenger ground access mode choice behavior in order to improve the HKIA access mode services in the short-term horizon. The effects of safety margins, travel time reliability and a latent variable on mode utility are explicitly considered in the discrete choice models. It should be noted that the latent variable is a quantitative measure of departing air passenger travel mode satisfaction regarding airport ground access services. The effects of some important factors such as the value of time (VOT), value of safety margin (VOSM) and value of reliability (VOR) are quantified on the basis of the model calibration results. With the use of a combination of revealed preference (RP) and stated preference (SP) survey data, the calibrated model results show that the VOT for business departing air passengers is significantly higher (RP value: HK$2.11 per minute; SP value: HK$1.92 per minute) than that for non-business departing air passengers (RP value: HK$0.86 per minute; SP value: HK$0.64 per minute). The RP model results further reveal that, in general, departing air passengers place a lower value on safety margin than on travel time. The VOSM for departing air passengers is HK$0.84 per minute. The impact of travel time reliability on departing air passenger ground access mode choices to HKIA has also been investigated using SP questions. It was found that departing air passengers are willing to pay HK$ 12.97 per trip to reduce the probability of encountering a 15-minute unexpected delay by every 10%. The development of a new set of level-of-service (LOS) standards for passenger orientation within the airport passenger terminals is the third contribution of this research. As departing and transfer/transit air passengers, on average, arrive at the airport passenger terminal 2.5 hours prior to the scheduled flight departure times, they have plenty of time to walk through the HKIA passenger terminal building. However, owing to the complicated layout of the passenger terminal building, it is common for some people to have difficulty in locating their destinations in spite of the availability of wayfinding aids. A new set of LOS standards is proposed based on the visibility indices (Vis) of the terminal facilities for indicating the ease of passenger orientation. The HKIA Departures Level can be classified as LOS C in the newly proposed standards. This implies that air passengers are required to rely on the wayfinding aids for their movements so as to eliminate disorientation. The resultant VI and proposed LOS standards can be used as criteria for the design and improvement of airport passenger terminal layouts and wayfinding aids. The fourth contribution of this research is the assessment of departing and transfer/transit air passenger perceived importance and satisfaction on the service items provided within the HKIA passenger terminal. The analysis results indicated that the lost and found office and restaurants are important service items for both-departing and transfer/transit air passengers. However, the performance of these two service items was shown to be unsatisfactory, suggesting the need for further improvements. It is believed that the findings of this research can provide practical contributions for a future higher satisfaction regarding the overall performance of HKIA. It also provides a starting point for developing a much grand model to relate the demand for airport ground access modes and airport terminal facilities. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | open access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| b20696942.pdf | For All Users | 13.35 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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