With the addition of multiple terminals in previous alpha builds, one of the features I would like to see to greatly expand on this is the ability to have a central or single check-in area (and possibly security).
In the US, real life airports like Pittsburgh and Atlanta-Hartsfield have a main terminal, where passengers go through security and check-in via the main terminal (and baggage claim also usually here), and then take underground tram systems to terminals further out in the field that contain the gates.
With the limited space currently available in the 4 usable building areas, adding a set of check-in desks in each terminal becomes very redundant and limits users to a specific style of airport.
I would like to see the ability to link check-in desks to terminals or specific gates and eliminate the need for check-in desks to reside in the same terminal as the gates. I believe security may work like this as well, but I haven’t fully tested that yet.
Doesn’t work as far as I can see. I get errors that say passengers cannot find a check-in desk in the terminal. I have 10 self-check in kiosks in the main terminal. 2 baggage drops are connected to baggage bays in the terminal that has all my small gates.
The way to get around this is to have 1 large terminal, instead of multiple small ones, with central check in and security, and then have different wings of gates extend from the center, and each wing has its own bag bay, so the bags stay separate, I’ll see if I can find any airports in ACEO that I have built that do this, or just any I have seen
What type of terminal layout do you want to build?
Satellite terminals for example are mentioned to be one zerminal zone in ACEO. The zones are only for cases where you have fully separated buildings with independent public transportation.
It sounds like its a question of semantics for different countries as to what constitutes a terminal. As @andyc says, in ACEO, a terminal is a building with it’s own infrastructure (staff, public transport links, vehicles) completely separate from other terminals.
The satellite concourses you describe at Atlanta and Pittsburgh aren’t terminals within the definition ACEO has used, but are separate buildings within the same terminal. Using a single terminal, as the others say, it is possible to have a centralised check-in area and baggage claim area and then separate baggage bays for each satellite/concourse. If you want to completely separate the passengers so they only go to the particular satellite/concourse, then you can do this with separate security zones within a single terminal.
Correct.
The whole terminal zone in ACEO was implemented to make the passenger separation for different independent buildings work.
Without this zone, passengers were using the wrong security checks, wanted to visit shops or toilets in another building and then they didn’t found the path and never reached the designated gate.
Same applied for staff, they were running around the entire airport, couldn’t find paths and causing massive delays. So it’s not 100% compared to the term “terminal” we know it from real life airports. It is just to make sure, that passengers will use the correct independent infrastructure.
When you work with a centralized check in, spreading out in to different security zones or just different wings or satellites, it’s actually one single terminal in ACEO. (and if it’s only one, you do not need to use the terminal zoneing at all)
I get what you are saying, but as a counter, I would say having one very large terminal makes employee and vehicle management a nightmare. The added ability when using terminals is that I can assign X number of employees to that terminal, and I know they are going to report to that area (security, boarding desk, etc)…whereas, when I have one large terminal, there always seem to be issues with employees/passengers finding there way if they enter a terminal at the very bottom of the map and need to go to a part of the terminal at the very top of the map.
Remember you can also segregate your secure zones between different satellites or "wings"if you are attempting to channel customers from a central check in, then onto different gate areas. You can have each branch off from the central area, as its own segregated security search and departures/arrivals secure zone.
Combined with the different baggage bays that can work really well for bigger airports most airports will have one centralised security search area, but it can be an interesting way to customise your airports in ACEO
Similar to Stansted airport - one main terminal and then satellites with the gates. For me that’s covered using a large terminal zone,(or none at all)
For separate terminals I view it like Heathrow or Dublin airport where it’s a separate building (may be linked) but each terminal is its own stand alone facility where you check in at that terminal and go through security at that terminal.
In my cases, I build one central security as well and then use different International Zones to divide the gates areas to prevent passengers using wrong facilities. (ZRH style, except that my Shengen Terminal is passport checked too)
The only disadvantage is that staff is running around in the entire airport and cannot be assigned to specific zones then.
most airports will have one centralised security search area, but it can be an interesting way to customise your airports in ACEO