Much research has been undertaken to gain insight into business alignment of IT. This
alignment basically aims to improve a firm’s performance by an improved
harmonization of the business function and the IT function within a firm. The thesis
discusses previous approaches and constructs an overall framework, which a potential
approach needs to fit in.
Being in a highly regulated industry, for airports there is little space left to increase
revenues. However, the retailing business has proven to be an area that may contribute
towards higher income for airport operators. Consequently, airport management should
focus on supporting this business segment. Nevertheless, it needs to be taken into
account that smooth airport operations are a precondition for successful retailing
business at an airport.
Applying the concept of information intensity, the processes of gate allocation and
airport retailing have been determined to appraise the potential that may be realized
upon (improved) synchronization of the two. It has been found that the lever is largest
in the planning phase (i.e. prior to operations), and thus support by means of
information technology (for information distribution and improved planning) may help
to enable an improved overall retail performance.
In order to determine potential variables, which might influence the output, a process
decomposition has been conducted along with the development of an appropriate
information model.
The derived research model has been tested in different scenarios. For this purpose an
adequate gate allocation algorithm has been developed and implemented in a purposewritten
piece of software. To calibrate the model, actual data (several hundred thousand
data items from Frankfurt Airport) from two flight plan seasons has been used.
Key findings: The results show that under the conditions described it seems feasible to
increase retail sales in the magnitude of 9% to 21%. The most influential factors
(besides the constraining rule set and a retail area’s specific performance) proved to be a
flight’s minimum and maximum time at a gate as well as its buffer time at gate.
However, as some of the preconditions may not be accepted by airport management or
national regulators, the results may be taken as an indication for cost incurred, in case
the suggested approach is not considered.
The transferability to other airport business models and limitations of the research
approach are discussed at the end along with suggestions for future areas of research