@luigisrs.bsky.social
I like to cook, ride my bike and take photos.
Airlines: Optimize for load factor and asset utilization. Every minute on ground is revenue loss. Schedule aggressive turnarounds betting on operational precision.
05.12.2025 03:07 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Airlines want high throughput. Airports want quick turns. These incentives are not always aligned.
Understanding why systems work the way they do requires mapping who optimizes for what — and where those incentives conflict.
luigisrs.substack.com/p/airports-a...
Ground handlers (contracted): Optimize for cost efficiency.
Fuelers: Optimize for route density.
Caterers: Optimize for delivery timing.
TSA: Optimizes for security compliance.
Each makes sense locally. Together, they create friction.
Airlines: Optimize for load factor and asset utilization. Every minute on ground is revenue loss. Schedule aggressive turnarounds betting on operational precision.
Airports: Optimize for concession revenue and landing fees. More flights = more passengers = more spending.
on Airports as Systems, a series on complex systems architecture, operational design and constraints in the real world: No single entity optimizes for end-to-end passenger experience at airports.
This is a multi-stakeholder coordination problem where local optimization creates global inefficiency. 🧵
Queueing theory: utilization above 80-85% creates exponential wait times.
Airports regularly operate at 90%+ during peaks.
The system is designed to run hot.
Full breakdown: open.substack.com/pub/luigisrs...
Evening Peak (4-8 PM): Baggage systems bottleneck. Arriving bags sort to carousels. Connecting bags transfer between flights. Missed connections require manual intervention. Handlers work at capacity.
29.11.2025 06:55 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Midday (10 AM-2 PM): Runway capacity becomes the primary constraint. Departures and arrivals compete for slots. Air traffic control sequences aircraft. Ground delays increase. Gates compress as inbound aircraft stack up.
29.11.2025 06:55 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Morning Peak (5-9 AM): Security checkpoints saturate first. TSA lanes can't scale fast enough. Passengers miss flights. Airlines delay departures waiting for passengers. Gate utilization suffers.
29.11.2025 06:55 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0on Airports as Systems:
Every system has a bottleneck. The bottleneck determines throughput. Everything else is inventory.
In airports, the bottleneck shifts throughout the day. Here's how:
Airports are platforms for orchestrating concurrent, interdependent flows across physical, informational, and regulatory boundaries.
Understanding how they work means understanding how complex systems everywhere actually function.
New Piece: open.substack.com/pub/luigisrs...
This is a system operating within its design parameters.
And like all well-designed systems, it becomes invisible when it works and catastrophic when it fails.
Dubai isn't their destination — it's their waypoint. The hub that connects Mexico City to dozens of Asian cities that would otherwise require multiple stops or impossible economics.
3 hours later, the same aircraft pushes back as EK255. The reverse journey begins.
Baggage handler scans the first suitcase at 6:51 AM. Fuel truck connects at 6:53 AM. Cleaning crew boards at 6:54 AM. Catering arrives at 6:56 AM.
Meanwhile, 287 passengers disperse: Tech workers to Bangalore and Singapore, British tourists to the Maldives, folks visiting middle east.
287 deplaning passengers. thousands of gallons of jet fuel. 312 bags. 42 meal carts. 6 tons of cargo. 298 boarding passengers. Complete aircraft inspection.
None of these operations can start until others finish. None can fail without cascading delays.
At 00:32 AM, Emirates flight EK256 arrived to Dubai from from Mexico City, crossing ~9500km over the Atlantic, making a stop in Barcelona, to continue flying for 6h 23 min, into the Arabian Peninsula.
in the next 55 minutes, the airport will orchestrate an exchange most passengers never see.
