Simulation of new policies for the baggage check in the security gates of the airports: the Logiscan case study

In recent years, the trend to mix in the same airports legacy and low-cost companies is heavily affecting the airport operations, stressing the security checks in particular. In fact, low-cost companies force the airports to add additional and strict rules for the hand baggage allowance, with additional checks in the security gates, introducing delays for all the passengers, including the legacy ones. Moreover, recent changes to the rules for hand luggage allowance introduced by legacy airlines are forcing the airport operations management to think of new strategies to automate the entire security check process. One of the most advanced systems presently available to speed up the security operations is Logiscan, developed by Datalogic e Logital in collaboration with the "Aeroporto Guglielmo Marconi di Bologna S.p.A.", the company managing the Bologna Airport. The system automates the operations of size and weight measures and allowance checks and, in conjunction with a redesign of the queuing system, aims to improve the overall system efficiency in terms of accuracy and efficiency. In order to check the new overall system, the entire process has been modeled and analyzed by means of AirSIM, a simulation tool for airport operations based on the well-known OMNeT++ Discrete Event Simulator. AirSIM is an object-oriented simulator able to describe the behavior of different passenger types, as well as to incorporate the logic of different flow management policies. In this paper we will show both how AirSIM can be used to analyze and choose the different parameters of the new security system of an airport, and how the overall system performances can be enhanced.