Airports Industry Pack

Airport Construction Cost & Schedule Forecasting

Airport works happen around a live operation. Productivity is set by how many hours you are allowed on site, not by how many people you can put there — and most forecasts miss that entirely.

How the engine works

What breaks forecasts in airports

The maths is the same everywhere. These are the sector-specific conditions that make a generic forecast wrong.

Night possessions destroy productivity

A six-hour night window yields far less than six hours of daytime work once mobilisation, escorting and demobilisation are deducted. Applying daytime rates overstates progress from day one.

Effective output can be under 50% of daytime

Operational constraints outrank the programme

A runway reopens on time regardless of whether the work finished. Overruns are absorbed into future windows, quietly extending the programme.

The constraint is fixed; your work is not

Airside access overhead is not in most estimates

Passes, escorting, vehicle permits and security screening consume hours that never appear on a labour histogram.

A standing overhead on every shift

Weather cancels windows entirely

A lost night possession is rarely made up — it waits for the next available slot, which may be weeks away.

One lost night can cost a fortnight

CAA and safeguarding approvals gate work

Crane permits, obstacle limitation surfaces and safeguarding sign-offs are prerequisites that behave like regulatory gates.

No approval, no work, no recovery

What's in the Airports pack

The engine is identical across industries. The pack is the content that makes it speak your sector's language from the first time you open it.

WBS skeleton

  • Airside civils & pavements
  • Lighting & AGL
  • Terminal fit-out
  • Baggage systems
  • Stands & aprons
  • Landside access

Cost codes

  • Night shift premium
  • Escorting & security overhead
  • Possession mobilisation
  • Plant standing time
  • Temporary works & diversions

Risk register

  • Possession cancelled by ops
  • Weather loses a window
  • Safeguarding approval delay
  • Unrecorded buried services
  • Airline schedule change

Constraint milestones

  • Runway closure windows
  • Seasonal traffic restrictions
  • CAA safeguarding sign-off
  • Stand handback dates
  • Terminal opening date

Worked example

Taxiway reconstruction, 14 of 40 possessions used

BAC $23M. EV $7.4M, AC $8.9M, PV $8.1M. Two possessions lost to weather, and effective night productivity is running at 61% of the daytime rate assumed in the baseline.

CPI
0.83
EAC
$27.7M
Possessions needed
48
P80 completion
+11 weeks
The forecast that matters is not the money — it is that you now need 48 possessions and only have 40 booked. Eight more windows must be negotiated with operations, and that negotiation has a lead time of its own.

Illustrative figures, shown to demonstrate the method. Your numbers replace them.

Airports questions

Yes. Night, day and weekend shifts each carry their own effective-output factor, which the forecast applies to remaining work.
That is the headline output — remaining work divided by realistic output per window, so you can book slots before you run out.
Logged with a cause, feeding the cancellation rate used in the Monte Carlo rather than a fixed assumption.
The possession model suits any constrained-access environment — it works equally for landside and terminal work with the factors changed.

Other industry packs

Forecast airports with numbers you can defend

Forecast Engine $299 · Airports pack $99 · all eight packs $499