"Peak Week" - Innovative Survey Helps Airport with Planning

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"Peak Week" - Innovative Survey Helps Airport with Planning
By Charisma Cannon

Peak Week is not the newest week dubbed by Nielsen when polling households across the country on their viewing habits. Instead, it’s an innovative research method that Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport uses to quantify activity levels, the overall performance of key functional areas and to plan for future Airport growth and capacity.

Conducted for the past six years by the Hartsfield Planning Collaborative in conjunction with the Department of Aviation’s Planning Division, the survey focuses on areas such as security checkpoint and ticket counter wait times, the number of pedestrians crossing a respective intersection, which door is used most frequently to enter and exit the Airport, and even the amount of people in a car as it approaches or leaves the Airport all are gauged during this week of intense monitoring and tabulating. A passenger survey is conducted as well. Both Terminal North and South are surveyed and tallied to come up with overall numbers.

Departing passengers are asked such questions as their destination, mode of transportation, time of arrival, their use of electronics and other questions pertinent to the travel experience. This information assists the Airport in providing services that can enhance a passengers’ overall traveling experience. Other information such as counting the number of cars traveling to and from the Airport on feeder roads to determining the number of people in those vehicles, assists Airport staff in working with agencies like the Georgia Department of Transportation in roadway planning essential to accessing the airport.

Shelley Lamar, community and land use planning manager for the Department of Aviation, points out why Peak Week results are so important to Hartsfield-Jackson’s airport planning needs.

“Because every airport is different, you have to be airport-specific in your discernment of what will work for you. Hartsfield-Jackson is the world’s busiest airport. We have different needs from, say, a San Francisco International or JFK. So the textbook model in airport planning wasn’t sufficient enough when it came to meeting the planning needs of an airport of this magnitude.”

In fact, industry experts tout the survey as a benchmark report/study that other airports should use to plan airport roadways, capacity for services, expansion and other developments.

“Hartsfield-Jackson is a leader in the aviation industry,” said Ben DeCosta, general manager of the Airport. “This survey and its level of respect in the aviation industry is a testament to that leadership and our ability to be innovative and forward-thinking.”