Facility Layout Issues
Efficient facility layouts tend to maximize the use of land within the given leasehold area. These are not only considerations for a land-constrained airport but for any airport striving to achieve both efficiency and effectiveness. Cargo facilities can either be arranged in the traditional configuration, where the buildings and apron area are positioned parallel to the runway/taxiway system, or arranged such that buildings and apron area are positioned perpendicular to the runway/taxiway system, or some combination of the two methods. In general, a perpendicular orientation will result in a configuration that maximizes the building and apron area for a given leasehold area along the airfield frontage.
As an example, an airport has an approximately 30-acre site available for cargo facility development. Historically, the airport has developed cargo facilities in the traditional runway parallel configuration. As shown in Figure 5, if the available site is developed in the same manner, the site could accommodate 180,000 square feet of cargo building space and sufficient apron area to park seven B757 aircraft. Also shown in Figure 5, if the buildings were oriented perpendicular to the runway/taxiway system, the same site would accommodate an additional 30,000 square feet of building space and three additional B757 parking spaces. Ramp management and airside operations are more challenging but where land is scarce this becomes a solid approach.