Evaluation of Level of Service at Airport Passenger Terminals

The level of service (LOS) subject is a theme of special concern for airport and airline operators. One of the main issues is the lack of meaningful standards, because most recommendations utilized by airports worldwide are based on arbitrary and hidden assumptions. Many academic studies developed during the last decades have also proven to be very limited, because none of them have been able to provide an overall LOS evaluation methodology according to user perceptions. Presented in this work is a complete methodology for the LOS evaluation at airport passenger terminals. It is capable of evaluating the LOS of individual components and for the terminal as a whole. All standards are based on the user perceptions, obtained by observation and surveys done at various airports. The LOS standards provided in this work are based on a sample of 400 interviewed and observed passengers. All interviewed passengers have been thoroughly observed during airport activities; because of this, it was possible to collect important data representing the characteristics of passenger and respective used facilities.