Study on departure passenger movement during security check process at airport terminal based on an improved cellular automata model

Airport security check is a crucial part of air travel, and the efficiency of this process directly impacts the overall airport experience. This article presents a study on the modelling and simulation of movement of departure passengers during security check at airport terminals, with a particular emphasis on elucidating microscopic properties such as passenger flow patterns, individual movement dynamics and especially queuing phenomena. In order to solve the unreasonable path problem caused by direct application of cellular automata model, we propose an improved cellular automata model in which a new concept of horizontal restrain floor field is innovatively introduced. Considering the factors of spatial distance, number of queuing people and potential queuing people, a checkpoint selection probability model is embedded into the CA model. The results show that the queuing behavior of passengers is influenced by various factors from three aspects: (i) selection strategy of checkpoint, (ii) spatial layout of inspection area, (iii) arrival interval and verification time. The findings of this study can be used by airport operators to have better understanding of departure passengers’ movements at a micro level, improve the efficiency of the security check process and enhance the airport experience for passengers. Some measures can be taken to reduce the queue waiting time, such as personnel guidance, information signage, planning wider entrance and more queue lanes, replacing the manual verification with ticket inspection machines and so on.