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Professional Airport Planning Services Airport Master Plan

Location

Chattanooga, TN

Service Area

Planning & Development

Skyline and landscape of Chattanooga

Project Brief

Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport was looking for an innovative airport master plan to inform a capital investment strategy to accommodate airport passengers and tenants on the airfield.

Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport (CHA) has recently been growing by double-digit percentages over the past few years, resulting in the need to expand the passenger terminal and parking facilities.

Approach

Based on our understanding of the unique operational characteristics of CHA and its passengers, as well as our experience at other airports, we prepared a future program tailored to their situation. This program was then confirmed using industry standards and guidelines from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Airport Development Reference Manual, 10th Edition, and Airport and Cooperative Research Program (ACRP), Report 25, Airport Passenger Terminal Planning and Design. 

Despite the passenger increases forecasted over the next twenty years, the existing check-in lobby and number of check-in desks was determined to accommodate passengers through the planning period. These findings are consistent with industry trends which involve the increased use of mobile and self-service check-in which results in fewer passengers requiring the ticketing lobby, and for those that do, a shorter visit overall.

While the number of security screening checkpoint lanes did not require much growth, expansion of the lanes was required to accommodate additional queuing and circulation space for a more pleasant experience and optimal. throughput levels. Using these requirements and future forecast, InterVISTAS generated seven future concourse expansion alternatives for evaluation to meet the 20-year planning horizon. From there, a program to meet near-term demand was developed.

Results

Employing a sustainable framework for evaluation of the alternatives, the Authority and InterVISTAS collaborated on the selection of the preferred alternative. The selection maximized use of the existing facility, while providing the capacity to accommodate the next 10 years of growth.

In the end, one of the major factors was the ability to phase into the ultimate terminal development with minimal disruption to the existing operation, allowing air service to continue to grow during construction.

The master plan executive summary can be found at: Chattanooga Master Plan Executive Summary.

The master plan fact sheet can be found at: Chattanooga Master Plan Fact Sheet.

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