Airport security queue design study for Leeds Bradford Airport
Designing the central screening area queue and the supporting smart guiding logic for LBA's new screening checkpoint
Services provided
Queue design study for the new Central Screening Area (CSA)
Operational lane performance assessment using Point FWD's analytical tooling
Static queue modeling against current and projected passenger presentation
Functional design and implementation logic for an automated queue management system (load balancing, occupancy, shortcuts)
Workshop with LBA operations and conclusion report with recommendations
Key results
A validated CSA queue design ready for fit-out, with capacity defined per passenger flow and per lane configuration
Seasonal lane performance benchmarks and a clear view of the operational parameters LBA needs to manage to hold them
A functional specification of the queue management logic that LBA can take into procurement, covering load balancing, pre-divest positioning and shortcut behavior
Concrete operational recommendations on recheck staffing at peak, a mini queue in front of the SSc to remove machine idle time, and near real-time passenger monitoring in the queue and pre-divest areas
“Working with Point FWD has given us much clearer visibility and control over our CSA queue design and security throughput processes. By aligning the physical layout with smart, dynamic queuing logic, we’re able to increase efficiency, better balance demand against available capacity, and give our teams greater confidence that resource is being deployed where it delivers the most value.”
- Dan Hunt, Head of Resource Planning & Business Intelligence LBA
Project description
Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA) is preparing a new central security screening checkpoint with a multi-lane configuration covering Fasttrack, Staff/PRM/Family, and priority flows. The new layout has to absorb sustained passenger growth, respect the fire load constraint of the queueing area, and meet LBA's service KPIs for both common and Fasttrack passengers.
At this size, the queue area is where checkpoint capacity is preserved or quietly lost. Fixed columns, narrow emergency doors, multiple parallel passenger flows, and lane schedules that change between off-peak and peak all converge there. LBA asked Point FWD to develop and validate the queue designs and to specify the automated guiding logic that would keep performance stable as demand grows.
Lane performance challenges
Lane performance varies sharply by season. Operational lane modeling exposed a clear bottleneck shift between summer and winter regimes, with the constraint moving across recheck, passenger screening and the diverter depending on the time of year. One queue design has to perform across both regimes.
Divest occupancy, divest time, passenger acquisition time at the SSc and baggage reject rate are the parameters that drive lane performance. A queue that distributes inefficiently over available lanes reduces overall checkpoint performance.
Wayfinding under multiple parallel flows. Fasttrack and PRM/Family need direct paths from their boarding card readers to their dedicated lanes, while the common flow has to be distributed over available lanes with shortcuts active during off-peak.
Designing smart queue logic
Our solution
In a focused engagement with the LBA project team led by Dan Hunt, Head of Planning and Resources, Point FWD ran a four-step approach.
We first quantified the new CSA's lane performance per sub-process (divest, SSc, CT screening, diverter, reclaim, recheck), exposing the seasonal bottleneck shift and the parameters that drive capacity.
We then mapped current passenger presentation against a recent reference day and projected demand against LBA's growth scenarios, defining queue capacity requirements per lane configuration.
On that base we specified the automated queue management logic: dynamic load balancing with smart gates that adjusts passenger routing within tight tolerances to absorb performance fluctuation, occupancy optimization that holds divest pressure stable through position allocation, and automated shortcuts that contract or expand the queue area to match the active lane schedule.
Finally, we delivered queue layouts for each passenger flow (Fasttrack, PRM/Family, Shortcut, General Flow) using IATA Levels of Service as the design baseline, and tested width variants against the column grid and emergency egress requirements to give LBA a layout that holds up under fire load and operational constraints.
About Leeds Bradford Airport
Leeds Bradford Airport is the largest airport in Yorkshire, serving the Leeds, Bradford and wider Yorkshire region. The airport is preparing a new central screening checkpoint to absorb sustained passenger growth and to maintain its service standards as demand peaks reshape over the rest of the decade.
Get in touch
Curious how this could work for your airport? Let’s talk.
Contact Michael Verhage
Senior consultant