Track: Undergraduate Student Paper Competition

Abstract

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, measures were enforced on air travel to limit the spread of the virus as a step towards mitigating health and financial risks. This study aims to reveal the most critical COVID-19 measures in airports that effectively reduce potential risks. In addition, the study aims to put forward a framework to redesign internal airports facility layouts that facilitate reducing passengers’ cycle time and ensure optimal compliance with the revealed measures based on their priorities. A compiled list of imposed preventive measures is used for the design of a questionnaire survey targeting the opinions of experts in the fields of epidemiology and infectious diseases, as well as airport managers and operational staff for the collection of measures' importance weights and rating data. The internal facility layout of a typical domestic medium-sized airport in Saudi Arabia was also captured, along with its pertaining data were also collected. A hybrid approach was followed using: the VIseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) technique in Serbian, which means: Multicriteria Optimization and Compromise Solution, the Systematic Layout Planning (SLP) procedure, and the Computerized Relative Allocation of Facilities Technique (CRAFT) to generate airport facility layout alternatives. Results of the study revealed a prioritized set of critical COVID-19 preventive measures within airports. Furthermore, an optimal internal layout redesign of an airport facility is developed based on the revealed set of prioritized measures. Implications of this study include the proposed hybrid approach of the used methods and the revealed set of prioritized COVID-19 preventive measures in airports. Which can assist decision-makers and responsible authorities of airports in increasing the compliances with enforced measures through optimized layout designs of airports limiting the spread of viruses and pandemics.