The airport generally consists of three primary areas: landside, terminal and airside. The landside area consists of intermodal and ground access areas, such as ingress and egress routes to the terminal building, parking garages, rental car facilities, public transportation, and other airport support areas. Functional areas within a commercial service airport typically include passenger terminal ticketing counters, baggage claim areas, concessions, restrooms, public assembly areas, airline clubs, mechanical space, ground transportation, security screening, and administrative areas for the airport operator, airlines and other tenants. Passenger terminals also include intermodal transportation, vendor storage, employee daycare and workout facilities, pet areas, and business centers. Often, a general aviation terminal is co-located with an FBO and includes administrative areas, flight planning, pilot lounges, and meeting and training rooms. Airside includes the runways, taxiways and aircraft parking areas within the perimeter fence.

Each area of the airport requires detailed planning efforts to maximize the long-term growth of the airport. Demands on the facility, as well as needs of the community and various local, regional, state, and federal requirements, must be understood and incorporated into the planning studies. The applicable requirements and associated standards should be incorporated into the planning effort so as to account for demand and capacity changes, stakeholder and community needs, financing, safety, security and environmental, to name a few. The planning function is a critical component of airport management. Large sums of money are involved, and long-term binding agreements and large parcels of land are often affected during the planning process. Once it’s built, it must also be maintained, making the planning process an integrated part of the entire airport system. Plans, once implemented, affect the airport’s revenue and expenses and may impact air carriers, tenants, vendors and the community.

The planning process is comprised of several elements. Airport Master Plans are the primary document used at airports for long-range planning. Master plans represent the vision of the airport operator, the stakeholders, the local community, government agencies, planners and airport sponsors, up to 20 years out. Master plan updates, Airport Layout Plan updates and Capital Improvement Plans address shorter-term needs. Regardless of the short or long term nature, airport operators must address several elements in the planning and development of airport projects, including noise abatement, environmental and the demand the airport can expect in terms of aeronautical service and customer expectations.

This module addresses the many elements involved in planning developments and handling environmental issues at airports.