Airport Operators
Airport Security Passenger Throughput Improvement
Airport Security Passenger Throughput Improvement
Working with the UK’s fastest growing post-covid airport, we were engaged to assist in increasing the passenger throughput in the security search area.
Our client had struggled to return back to its pre-COVID-19 skilled staff numbers, and the deficit was expected to have a negative impact on security queuing time during the summer period.
Develop Consulting were asked to assist specifically in working collaboratively with the airport and their security contractor, to work directly with the team to improve the throughput in the initial phase. A second phase focused on ‘making tomorrow better’ by improving their short and long-term planning.
Results
- 20% increase in tray throughput during morning peak
- 15% increase across the day for tray throughput
- Reduced dwell time for passengers in security by c. 15 minutes at peak times
- Reduced headcount costs
- Up to three months visibility of resource capacity
- Robust and visible performance measures demonstrating improvements
- Improved grip and control on day-to-day and week-to-week performance
- Team and personal development, through coaching and applying new skills.
- Day-by-day and long view training scheduled produced
- ROI of 18:1 – with a predicted combined revenue creation and security annualised saving of over £1m
Observations
The central search area security contractor could not recover its agent numbers post-COVID to match the summer passenger forecast. The team did not have an accurate way to predict how many security lanes it would be able to open during peak times, which led to longer than anticipated queue times. Training for new recruits was unstructured and inefficient.
They had no grip on lane throughput performance or methods to positively influence it. KPIs were not cascaded down to the teams, and they were not regularly monitored.
Objectives
Working collaboratively with the airport and the security company, to work directly with the team to improve their throughput in the initial phase. A second following phase focused on ‘making tomorrow better’ by improving their short and long-term planning.
Actions
Develop Consulting worked with the teams across the full operating times of the search area to gain control of the day-to-day performance, particularly the first early wave. This delivered the expected results of increasing throughput by 20% during peak times and 15% average across the day within the first six weeks.
A daily meeting with key cross functional stakeholders was introduced to review the previous days’ and that morning’s performance. Improvement opportunities were agreed upon to make the afternoon and the following days’ performance more efficient. This instilled a continuous improvement mindset and delivered the rapid improvements.
A process was established to plan in advance where each agent would be during peak times, to speed up the opening of lanes, which led to a reduction in queue build ups.
Improved presentation and efficiency of trays reaching the X-Ray machines was achieved by improving the agent’s training material, training methods and queueing methodology. To reduce lane dieback situations, the available area for passengers to repack away from the lanes was increased, team members were fully trained and then correctly allocated to the critical part of the process.
