Planning Border Controls at UK Airports: Quantitative studies into operational decisions and their impact on passengers

This thesis contains three new research projects in the field of airport border control. Utilising unique access to the UK Home Office and Border Force, these studies combine current and historic data of airport border control scenarios with advanced quantitative methods to provide novel analysis of passenger delays and their costs. This analysis is framed in terms of the significant rise in global air passenger numbers in recent decades and the major technological, operational and information changes that have occurred in response. The overall aim has been to consider areas where these new forms of airport border controls may continue to be operating in ways that result in suboptimal outcomes for passengers; in terms of both average wait times and the frequency of ‘unacceptably’ long delays. Whilst there is a vast literature exploring this field in terms of the theoretical impact of new systems of border control, there are few that explore the objectives of operational decisions or provide empirical evidence to evaluate their underlying logic. I attempt to rectify this by exploring three specific elements of the border system, using UK airports as a case study. The first project considers the impact that the stochasticity of flight arrival times has on the risks that long wait times will occur at non-automated border controls. Whilst authorities receive prior information on the number of flights, passengers, and passenger type, it cannot predict exactly what time those flights will arrive. Using stochastic Discrete Event Simulation (DES) of a UK airport terminal, we identify the wide range of border delays that occur from this single variable and suggest the staffing decisions that would be necessary to ameliorate this risk. My second project explores the costs of variances in border processing times by nationality. Using the results of observational research at various UK ports, I establish the average times that different nationalities spend at staffed desks. These are then included in an updated version of our DES model to show the link between processing rates and border delays. Further analysis illustrates the savings that could be achieved from ‘levelling down’ processing times for nationalities facing the highest challenge to their border. The final project switches to analysing newer automated border controls (eGates). Using results from a stated preference survey, I challenge existing valuations of travel time suggested for passengers in these systems and provide new insight into how the full arrival process needs to be considered when costing delays. DES modelling of multiple UK airports is then used to provide examples of how both time and operational costs vary as the level of eGate provision changes. I conclude from these results that the passenger time costs of an undersupply of gates will often significantly exceed the redundant operational costs of an oversupply.