Airport Access Volumes from Airline Schedules

A methodology is described for estimating air passenger and visitor automobile traffic volumes at an airport as a function of an airline flight time. The methodology allows for the estimation of inbound and outbound traffic volumes for any desired time interval as a function of airline flight arrival and departure times and probability distributions for the times that passenger automobiles enter and leave the airport relative to flight times. The total expected number of air passenger vehicles using the access facilities in a given time period is obtained by superimposing these probability distributions over all airline flights. Previous methods of measuring airport trip generation are reviewed. This is followed by a description of a 2-day travel survey conducted at the Dallas/Fort Worth Regional Airport (DFW) to obtain data for the model. Model estimates are compared with measured traffic counts in preliminary model validation.