Overview of Air Cargo Terminal Design Aspects

Air cargo represents an increasingly significant share of the transport market. In addition to mail, express, and emergency cargoes, air transportation is being used for the new market niches of perishable commodities and just-in-time deliveries. The transport and processing of these cargoes is performed by a specialized system that includes dedicated loading units, transport modes, equipment, airport installations, and commercial organization. An overview of this system focuses on the design of airport cargo facilities, describes an analytical method that allows the sizing of storage facilities with low computational effort, and refers to modeling approaches (mainly simulation-based) that can be used for a detailed investigation of various air cargo terminal design aspects.