The impact of seasonality on efficient airport capacity utilization

The major cause of under-capacity or overcapacity at smaller airports is seasonality. Such airports are finding it difficult to determine the capacity to meet the demand and adequately handle passengers in both high and low season. If the capacity is not optimally defined, excessive congestions and waiting times occur, resulting in lower service quality. Airports greatly benefit from capacity utilization analysis in terms of more accurate planning, designing, and adjusting capacity to the current demand in order to encourage further development as well as to reduce additional costs. Using queuing theory, this paper aims to answer the following question: is the passenger capacity at Rijeka International Airport (Croatia) optimally determined to meet the demand promptly, both in high and low season, without causing excessive congestions and waiting times. The results obtained indicate the occurrence of overcapacity since high season demand can be well served, even with reduced capacity used in the low season when demand is significantly lower.