John Lennon Airport uses simulation technology to speed up security

Tool also helps airport avoid risk of over investment

Liverpool's John Lennon Airport uses smulation tool to model staff and passenger flows before big technology investments

Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport has invested in a simulation tool as part of a £12.4m redevelopment programme to address rising passenger numbers and manage security.

The tool combines with other technologies to monitor people numbers and determine initially how big the security screening area should be. Once the investment has been made, the technology will simulate passenger numbers, predict their behaviour and estimate how long it will take to move them through security. The security screening facility will be three times the size of the previous one.

Staff can use this information to decide whether they should change their operations in the case of bottlenecks. A spokesperson for Lanner, which provides one element of the simulation tool, said: "There is likely to be an optimum number of people who can be moved through the security area quickly, greater numbers will slow the process down significantly. One way of speeding things up is by asking security guards to stop pulling people out for security checks."

The spokesperson said the simulation tool would increase airport efficiency and passenger experience, and reduce the amount of time people would need to spend at check-in.

The airport chose MFlow Forecast to model different scenarios to optimise space, security requirements and budgets before committing to expensive security technology investments.

MFlow Forecast is based on business process improvement firm Lanner’s simulation tool WITNESS, and was developed in partnership with biometrics and behaviour analytics specialist Human Recognition Systems (HRS).

HRS transport business unit manager Jim Slevin said that security technology and the regulatory requirements for it were changing constantly.

“Investment decisions are critical to developing a business case, and simulation can play a vital part. We chose WITNESS because it was already being used successfully in the air transport sector,” said Slevin.

The airport has now invested in its own WITNESS tool set, developed in partnership with HRS and Lanner. This will be able to simulate a variety of scenarios, such as flight schedule changes.

Slevin said the project had been successful owing to a simulation becoming an intrinsic part of business planning at Liverpool John Lennon Airport.

“Without that planning, the airport ran the risk of over-investing in unnecessary and expensive security equipment,” explained Slevin.

“It is also needed to ensure that the higher numbers of staff and passengers moving through the airport, after re-development, would not be caught up in queues at check-in or in the retail areas,” he added.