QUEUEING MODELLING OF AIR TRANSPORT SYSTEM PASSENGERS’ A CASE STUDY OF NNAMDI AZIKIWE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, ABUJA

Abstract

The airline industry in most countries is strategic to economic development as it ensures safe and timely travelling and encourages business activities while generating employment opportunities. The Nigerian air transport industry system faces a lot of challenges due to unwanted waiting lines or delay of passengers who are eager to meet up for appointments or in preference to road transport systems. These problems include many passengers queuing for boarding, departure with different arrival rates. This project developed a queuing model as part solution to the problem. The Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA) Abuja was used as a case study to model a solution to this general problem. Arik Airline Limited, British Airways, Ethiopian Airline and Aero Contractors were the companies used for the study. The waiting modelling involved the use of Birth and Death Rate (BDR) and Multi-Server (MS) Models, which are the most commonly, used models to solve this type of problems. Data was collected from the companies to validate the result of the models. The results showed that in order to meet the current demand of passengers in NAIA, Abuja it is required that each airline to operate with minimum of five (5) aircrafts for daily service to cope with the average demand of 21863 passengers per month on their present routes. Service factors of 0.5 (utilisation factor of 0.4, 0.6 and 0.9) at 5% significance level were used for both BDR and MS model. The model when applied showed that the system became more reliable and efficient with minimal delay of service in all sectors considered in this work. However, BDR and MS models should be applied to other airports in Nigeria to minimise delay while the relevant authorities should monitor the recording of passenger patronage in Nigerian airports.