3. Programming and design

3.1 Sizing assumptions

Accurate air traffic analysis is the preliminary step in designing a freight terminal. This traffic can be expressed in annual or peak values.

The annual tonnage handled is generally not representative of the freight terminal, as traffic is never evenly distributed over time, especially for low and irregular tonnages. It can, however, give an order of magnitude that can be used to classify terminals.

To size facilities accurately, we use peak traffic, which can be expressed as monthly, weekly, daily or hourly peaks. Unlike passenger peaks, hourly freight peaks are too fine-grained, given the average dwell time of goods in the terminal. In certain special cases (airports with large, regular traffic flows), however,...