How to Improve the Efficiency of Check-In Counter: A Counter-Sharing Method

Improving the efficiency of check-in counters is a significant concern for airport operation management departments and airline companies. However, the existing studies mainly optimize the counter allocation based on the number of counters and airport demands, which needs more exploration on improving the utilization rate of check-in counters under the condition of unchanged resource allocation. In this paper, we propose a counter-sharing method to improve check-in efficiency by sharing the idle check-in counters in the adjacent check-in area. In the proposed counter-sharing method, we first define the passenger's total walking distance and waiting time for queues as the metrics, then reassign the check-in areas and adjust the internal departure sequence of flights to maximize the counter-sharing rate. The numerical results indicate that the proposed counter-sharing method can improve the efficiency of check-in counters and reduce the passenger's total walking distance and waiting time in the queue during the check-in process, which can enhance the airport's operation efficiency and competitiveness.