Doing the Checkin, baggage handling and security check for one individual flight at the dedicated gate would quickly become a logistic nightmare.
For each departing flight, You would need the following:
To process the checkin,
-at least one checkin agent; more if many passengers are expected and excessive queues are to be avoided;
-the required equipment; i. e. computer systems and desks;
-sufficient space for all the passengers to queue up in front of those desks; and we are talking about three-figure numbers.
For the security control,
-at least one security checkpoint, equipped with a metal detector, body scanner, hand baggage X-ray, possibly explosive detector and a secluded space for special searches; this again in larger numbers, should You want to avoid excessive queuing.
For baggage handling,
-scales, belts and associated equipment;
-a dedicated X-ray or other scanning unit;
-a loading system.
Now, this has several downsides. The following spring to mind:
-You will need to keep a whole set of all this equipment ready and running at every gate. If at one gate, one of these systems breaks down, it will easily render the entire gate unusable.
-Processing the passengers takes time; assume one minute per passenger for a whole wide body aircraft load and You will easily need several hours to get it all done on one or two counters. A boarding time that long is simply unrealistic, so a enclosed waiting area to keep the passengers in after checkin and before boarding would be a must in that case - again massively increasing space requirements in the terminal.
-You will need a whole set of staff for every single gate: 1 for checkin, 2 or 3 for security control and also 3 or 4 loaders - so 6 to 8 employees for one single checkin counter. They will need to travel between gates when one flight is closed and the next one is to be opened; restricting their effective working time in the process. And the whole set of staff is needed irrespective of the passenger numbers on board; a Beech 1900 with 5 pax or an A380 with several 100 of them takes at least one whole set here.
-For transit flights, coming from an inbound flight, You do not normally need to pass a security check again, as You arrived from a sterile area already.
On the other hand, running a dedicated checkin area for all the flights, one central security checkpoint for everyone entering the sterile area containing the gates and then staffing the gates with only 1 or 2 employees for boarding and minor reseating allows for easily sharing capacity, as both the B190 and the A380 passengers will pass the same area and just go to the most convenient, open counter/checkpoint. So it saves complexity, time and also staff to run the terminal like this.
Vienna airport has tried to install a passenger security checkpoint in front of every finger a few years ago in order not to lose too much space by installing a central large checkpoint (this would have restricted the shop area). This has resulted in massive queues in front of every single gate, frustrated passengers and generally rather long boarding times. In the recently opened new terminal, this error has not been repeated and they have returned to the well-proven way of having one single security check area.
Last edited by Tu.114; 31st Jul 2012 at 07:43.