How Long Do Travelers Wait in an Airport? Size It and Pitch a 10x Fix

Estimate how much time a passenger spends waiting at an airport. Then come up with a moonshot: an ambitious idea that would cut that waiting time dramatically, rather than trim a few minutes from one line. ### Clarifying Questions - Does waiting mean only time spent standing in lines, or all time in the terminal not spent moving toward the plane, including the buffer travelers build in by arriving early? - Should the estimate cover departing travelers, arriving travelers or both, and for what kind of airport: a large international hub or a small regional one? - Is the answer an average per passenger, or the total waiting across all passengers at an airport over a day or a year? - Should the moonshot be something one company could build, or may it assume cooperation from airports, airlines, and government security and border agencies? ### Part 1 — Estimate the waiting time State your definition, break a passenger's time at the airport into components, put a value on each with your reasoning, and combine them into an estimate. Sanity-check the result. ```hint Follow the passenger, then the population List each point in a trip through the terminal where a passenger can be held up, note which travelers pass through it, and only then put numbers on each piece. ``` #### What This Part Should Cover - A clear definition and a component-by-component equation that separates traveler types. - Labeled assumptions, correct arithmetic and a sanity check. ### Part 2 — Pitch a moonshot Propose one bold idea that would remove most of the waiting instead of shaving it. Explain how it would work, which parts of your estimate it attacks, what it would take to make it real, and how you would measure success. ```hint Attack the biggest bucket Use your estimate to see which kind of waiting dominates and why passengers put up with it; a moonshot should remove that cause, not speed up one queue. ``` #### What This Part Should Cover - An idea tied to the largest components of the estimate and to the root cause it removes. - Feasibility, stakeholders, risks such as security and privacy, and success metrics. ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A precise definition of waiting chosen before any numbers. - Segmentation by direction of travel and by domestic versus international trips. - An estimate with round, labeled numbers and arithmetic that checks out. - A moonshot that follows from the estimate and is honest about what must be true for it to work. ### Follow-up Questions - If the security checkpoint can screen a fixed number of passengers per hour, how would you estimate the queue time at the morning peak? - How would you test the moonshot cheaply before asking airports and governments to invest in it? - Your idea removes queues but relies on biometric data. How would you serve travelers who refuse to share it?