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Article
Analytic Model of Screening Times at Airport Security Checkpoints
Transportation Research Record
  • Derek Doran, Wright State University - Main Campus
  • Swapna S. Gokhale
  • Nicholas Lownes
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-1-2013
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Abstract

Security checkpoints at airports across the United States are essential for preventing passengers with dangerous weapons, explosives, and other threats from boarding airplanes. However, the multiple screening technologies and speeds of passengers lead to unpredictable and sometimes long waiting times. Security agencies and airport managers must find ways to minimize screening times at checkpoints without compromising the security of aviation transportation. This paper introduces an analytic model that derives the distribution of completion times for passengers through a security checkpoint, given its architecture, passenger profiles, and expected service times at checkpoint components. By varying the model's parameters and checkpoint architecture, security agencies and airport managers can quickly understand how the end-to-end completion times of passengers are affected by policy changes and checkpoint reconfigurations. The model can also be used to forecast the performance of future checkpoint architectures that use new components and policies. The authors demonstrate the utility of the model by analyzing a prototypical security checkpoint.

DOI
10.3141/2400-01
Citation Information
Derek Doran, Swapna S. Gokhale and Nicholas Lownes. "Analytic Model of Screening Times at Airport Security Checkpoints" Transportation Research Record Vol. 2400 Iss. 1 (2013) p. 1 - 8 ISSN: 03611981
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/derek_doran/24/