3.2. Queue model for check-in service
Passengers who arrive at some known rate ‘‘l’’ are
given service at some rate ‘‘m’’, generally assumed to be
fixed at some average time, and move to the next
element of the system. Queues are formed if arrival rate
exceeds service rate. The queue length, expected total
service time, including any waiting in a queue, and time
for queues to clear may be calculated. These parameters
depend on the underlying mathematical distribution of
arrival and service times assumed to be applied.
If passenger arrivals are assumed to be random, the
Poisson process may be used. With service times
assumed to be described by an exponential model,
average waiting time at the processing point, total time
in commercial area and average number of people
waiting for service (queue length) are calculated as
follows: