By almost every measure, 2015 was a good year for the airline industry. U.S. airlines and foreign carriers serving the U.S. flew an all-time high of 895.5 million passengers last year, up 5% from the previous record high of 853.1 million reached in 2014, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Twenty-sixteen is on track to be another record-smasher.
TOP AIRPORT TERMINAL ARCHITECTURE AND A/E FIRMS
Rank, Firm, 2015 Revenue
1. Corgan $65,839,265
2. HOK $60,840,000
3. Gensler $44,390,000
4. Gresham, Smith and Partners $25,600,000
5. RS&H $24,300,000
6. Stantec $19,226,351
7. HNTB Corporation $15,998,381
8. HKS $15,309,071
9. Leo A Daly $13,529,252
10. Alliiance $11,260,000
That’s good news for AEC firms that design and construct airport facilities. “Airports and airlines are pulling the trigger on projects that have been in conceptual mode for many years,” says Robert Chicas, AIA, LEED AP, SVP/Director of Aviation and Transportation Practice at HOK. Terminal construction in the U.S. will grow from $5 billion in 2015 to $5.9 billion in 2016, according to the American Road & Transportation Builders Association. Terminal work will reach $8 billion in five years.
New York’s LaGuardia Airport has $4 billion of construction in the works. The domestic terminal at Atlanta’s mammoth Hartsfield-Jackson is undergoing a $393 million modernization. Most of the nation’s other major airport authorities also have expansion or modernization on their minds.
Self-service ticketing kiosks have already allowed airlines to reduce the number of ticketing agents and shrink ticket counters. “There may be a point where there are no ticket agents,” Chicas says. Less space for ticketing opens up more areas for revenue-generating services, he says. Airlines might even locate their premium flyers clubs in those locations.
Security operations are a critical factor in today’s terminal design. New technology could help alleviate this frustrating experience, but to have the biggest impact, airports have to revamp the whole security process, says Damon Brady, Division Leader for Intelligent Infrastructure at Leidos. “Infrastructure has been set up as a series of checkpoints—information display, ticketing, security, shopping, gate holding areas, boarding areas,” he says.
TOP AIRPORT TERMINAL ENGINEERING AND E/A FIRMS
Rank, Firm, 2015 Revenue
1. Jacobs $138,770,000
2. Burns & McDonnell $71,332,857
3. WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff $61,418,000
4. Arup $38,079,330
5. Ghafari Associates $22,500,000
6. Ross & Baruzzini $11,121,605
7. Walter P Moore $7,476,835
8. Woolpert $6,272,452
9. Jensen Hughes $6,023,819
10. Leidos $5,707,000
Each step adds time to the procession from front door to departure gate. Instead, passengers could use mobile technology to check in, obtain boarding passes, and print out baggage tickets themselves.
Airports in Europe and Asia have already revamped customs procedures for international arrivals. In the past, passengers presented their passports before getting their bags, then proceeded to another checkpoint with bags in tow. Now, it’s a one-stop process: Passengers pick up their bags before queuing up at Customs. The new process does require larger pre-screening areas for passengers toting luggage, says Daniel Diez, RA, Senior Associate at contractor Heery International.
Some overseas airports have introduced pre-screening mobile apps that speed up the customs process. Passengers enter biographical and flight information that can be verified by computer before the plane lands. In the U.S., the TSA may follow suit, possibly for domestic flights as well, Diez says. These new technologies and procedures should improve passenger flow, but in the short term, the trend is toward larger security gate areas.
In Europe, there is a new approach to waiting areas near gates, says Fernando Gavarrete, AIA, Heery’s Vice President and South Florida Area Manager. “It used to be that you would provide seating for 80% of people waiting at the gate,” he says. “The trend in Europe is to only provide seats for a small percentage of the population, especially for the elderly and handicapped.” Everyone else waits in restaurants or elsewhere in the concession area.
TOP AIRPORT TERMINAL CONSTRUCTION AND CM FIRMS
Rank, Firm, 2015 Revenue
1. Hensel Phelps $664,080,000
2. Turner Construction Co. $400,203,029
3. Austin Industries $341,922,742
4. Skanska USA $313,740,376
5. Walsh Group, The $283,239,511
6. Balfour Beatty US $140,722,239
7. Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., The $133,323,660
8. Manhattan Construction Group $129,346,000
9. Clark Group $126,144,654
10. McCarthy Holdings $125,989,779
AIRPORT GIANTS SPONSORED BY:
For this strategy to work, passengers must have real-time flight schedule information within eyesight to ensure they can make their flights. This may require more flight information screens, though many passengers are using their mobile electronic devices for status updates.
Airport operators want to get passengers through security and into the concession area as quickly as possible. “When passengers are more relaxed, they are more likely to shop,” says Enrique Melendez, Leidos’s Market Technology Leader. Every airport operator wants to boost revenue via more and better concessions.
With concessions essentially becoming gate holding areas, there is an opportunity for merchants to bring their products to the people, Brady says. Dynamic, personalized advertising can allow waiting passengers to order and pay for food or goods on their mobile devices, then dash into the store to pick up their orders—or even have them delivered to their seats. Retailers might even want to demonstrate products in front of waiting passengers. Plenty of space to accommodate such sales techniques, comfortable seating, and ample smartphone charging outlets will be needed to optimize this strategy.
The recent introduction of Airbus’s giant A380 model, which holds up to 544 passengers, means gates have to be expanded to accommodate boarding and disembarking the megaplane. “When one comes in, 500 passengers are looking for a bathroom as soon as they get off the plane,” says Gaverette. More and bigger bathrooms might be needed as more of these behemoths take to the skies.
The demand for design and construction services to provide additional capacity and modernize terminals bodes well for AEC firms working in the airport market. Those trends should result in several years of strong demand—a welcome change from the doldrums of the Great Recession.
The new Air Traffic Control Tower at San Francisco International Airport was recently named the Grand Conceptor award winner by the American Council of Engineering Companies. The new tower, designed by Walter P Moore (SE) to withstand a magnitude 7.5 earthquake, replaced the 1960s-era tower that was temporarily knocked out of commission during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. It will open in October. Photo: © John Swain Photography. Click to enlarge.
RETURN TO THE GIANTS 300 LANDING PAGE
Related Stories
| Mar 29, 2011
Chicago’s Willis Tower to become a vertical solar farm
Chicago’s iconic Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) is set to become a massive solar electric plant with the installation of a pilot solar electric glass project.
| Mar 29, 2011
Read up on Amazon.com's new green HQ
Phase IV of Amazon’s new headquarters in Seattle is nearly complete. The company has built 10 of the 11 buildings planned for its new campus in the South Lake Union neighborhood, and is on-track for a 2013 grand opening.
| Mar 29, 2011
Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura wins Pritzker Architecture Prize
Portugese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura, whose precisely-honed buildings reflect the influence of the late Chicago modernist Mies van der Rohe, is the 2011 winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the field's highest honor.
| Mar 25, 2011
Qatar World Cup may feature carbon-fiber ‘clouds’
Engineers at Qatar University’s Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering are busy developing what they believe could act as artificial “clouds,” man-made saucer-type structures suspended over a given soccer stadium, working to shield tens of thousands of spectators from suffocating summer temperatures that regularly top 115 degrees Fahrenheit.
| Mar 23, 2011
AIA adds 13 new contract documents to Documents-on-Demand service
Web-based solution adds 13 popular Architect’s Scope of Services Documents to AIA Documents-on-Demand, providing easy access to documents anytime, anywhere.
| Mar 23, 2011
After 60 years of student lobbying, new activity center opens at University of Texas
The new Student Activity Center at the University of Texas campus, Austin, is the result of almost 60 years of students lobbying for another dedicated social and cultural center on campus. The 149,000-sf facility is designed to serve as the "campus living room," and should earn a LEED Gold certification, a first for the campus.
| Mar 23, 2011
Architecture Billings Index shows nominal increase
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) reported the February Architecture Billings Index score was 50.6, up slightly from a reading of 50.0 the previous month. This score reflects a modest increase in demand for design services (any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings). The new projects inquiry index was 56.4, compared to a mark of 56.5 in December.
| Mar 22, 2011
The American National Standards Institute accredits Stantec for greenhouse gas verification
Stantec Consulting Ltd.’s Atmospheric Environment Group has been awarded accreditation by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) for verification of assertions related to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The Scope of Accreditation is for verification of emissions and removals at the organizational level for Group 1 – General.
| Mar 22, 2011
Mayor Bloomberg unveils plans for New York City’s largest new affordable housing complex since the ’70s
Plans for Hunter’s Point South, the largest new affordable housing complex to be built in New York City since the 1970s, include new residences for 5,000 families, with more than 900 in this first phase. A development team consisting of Phipps Houses, Related Companies, and Monadnock Construction has been selected to build the residential portion of the first phase of the Queens waterfront complex, which includes two mixed-use buildings comprising more than 900 housing units and roughly 20,000 square feet of new retail space.