How Nantes Airport Improved Capacity and Resource Planning
Nantes Airport faced a familiar airport planning challenge: growing passenger demand, changing passenger behavior and limited resources made it increasingly important to understand how much processing capacity would be required, and when.
As part of a wider airport management project involving VINCI Airports, SITA and AMORPH SYSTEMS, Nantes Airport implemented forecasting and simulation capabilities to support terminal capacity and resource planning.
Using AMORPH.aero, passenger demand could be forecast across relevant terminal processes, helping planners evaluate expected processing loads and resource requirements before they developed during operations.
The project demonstrated how passenger flow forecasting and simulation can support airport capacity planning by connecting expected demand with available processing capacity and resources.
The Challenge: Planning Capacity as Passenger Demand Changes
Nantes Airport was selected as one of the first airports within the VINCI Airports network for the implementation of new airport management capabilities.
For airport planners, capacity planning involves more than simply estimating future passenger numbers. Passenger behavior, flight schedules, processing times and the use of services such as check-in and security all influence when and where demand develops across the terminal.
Changes in passenger behavior can also shift demand between processes. Increasing use of online, mobile and self-service check-in, for example, can change how passengers move through the terminal and when they arrive at downstream processing points.
Effective airport capacity planning therefore requires understanding the relationship between passenger demand, processing capacity and available resources across interconnected terminal processes.
The Solution: Passenger Flow Forecasting and Resource Planning
Together with SITA Airport Pulse, AMORPH.aero provided Nantes Airport with forecasting capabilities to support capacity and resource planning across relevant passenger processing areas.
With a particular focus on security checkpoints, the solution used information such as flight schedules, expected passenger numbers and passenger show-up profiles to forecast demand at security over time.
By comparing expected passenger demand with available processing capacity and defined service-level targets, planners could evaluate the resources required to maintain targeted waiting times without unnecessarily oversizing capacity.
This provided a forward-looking view of expected operational demand, helping planners prepare resources based on how passenger flows were expected to develop rather than relying only on historical averages or current conditions.
Creating a More Integrated Planning Process
Before the project, planning information at Nantes Airport was distributed across solutions designed for individual processes. This made it more difficult and time-consuming to prepare forecasts, compare results and build a broader view of terminal capacity requirements.
Bringing relevant operational information and forecasting capabilities together helped create a more consistent planning process.
Instead of evaluating individual processes in isolation, planners could better understand how expected passenger demand translated into processing and resource requirements across the terminal.
“Amorph Systems products are developed with the agile method, directly alongside players in airport management, making them immediately functional and tailored to requirements. Nantes Airport is pleased to have chosen Amorph Systems to further improve its capacity for forecasting and simulating its resource requirements.” – Eric Siret, Security Systems Manager, Nantes Airport
The Results: More Efficient Capacity Planning
The implementation gave Nantes Airport a more efficient way to generate and evaluate forecasts for passenger demand and resource requirements.
By reducing the manual effort involved in preparing, executing and comparing planning scenarios, airport planners could spend less time producing forecasts and more time evaluating results and preparing for expected operational demand.
The project also demonstrated how forecasting and simulation can support airports of different sizes by connecting expected passenger flows with processing capacity, service-level targets and resource requirements.
For Nantes Airport, this provided a stronger foundation for security checkpoint planning, resource allocation and terminal capacity planning.
“In this project we have shown that AMORPH.aero is able to improve predictability and the daily work for planners no matter if this is a big Hub airport or a smaller regional airport like Nantes. The great teamwork together with Nantes airport colleagues made this a success.” – Andreas Hofmann, Director Business Development, Amorph Systems
From Forecasting to Better Capacity Planning
The Nantes Airport project illustrates an important principle of airport capacity planning: passenger numbers alone do not determine capacity requirements.
When passengers arrive at different processing points, how long processes take, what capacity is available and which service levels need to be maintained all influence resource requirements.
Combining passenger flow forecasting, simulation and capacity planning gives airport planners a forward-looking view of these relationships and helps them evaluate how available resources can be prepared for expected demand.
Explore AMORPH.aero Terminal Capacity Planning → HERE
Frequently Asked Questions About Airport Capacity Planning
What is airport capacity planning?
Airport capacity planning evaluates whether available infrastructure, processing points and resources can handle expected passenger demand. It helps airports understand where capacity constraints may develop and what resources could be required across processes such as check-in, security and border control.
How does passenger flow forecasting support airport capacity planning?
Passenger flow forecasting estimates when and where passenger demand is expected to develop across the terminal. By comparing forecast demand with available processing capacity, airports can identify potential constraints and prepare resources before peak demand reaches a processing point.
How can airports forecast security checkpoint demand?
Security checkpoint demand can be forecast using information such as flight schedules, expected passenger numbers, and passenger show-up profiles. This helps