A multi-criteria evaluation of solutions and alternatives for matching capacity to demand in an airport system: the case of London

This paper applies multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods to the evaluation of solutions and alternatives for matching airport system airside (runway) capacity to demand. For such a purpose, ‘building a new runway’ is considered as the solution and candidate airports of the system as alternatives for implementing the solution. The alternative airports are characterized by their physical/spatial, operational, economic, environmental, and social performance represented by corresponding indicator systems which, after being defined and estimated under given operating scenarios, are used as evaluation attributes/criteria by the selected MCDM methods. Two MCDM methods – Simple Additive Weighting and Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution – are applied to the case of the London airport system to rank and select the preferred alternative from three candidate airports – Heathrow, Gatwick, and Stansted – for where a new runway could be built.