Field notes · 7 January 2026
Gate-turn assumptions before peak season
A practical checklist for testing gate-turn tables against last year’s holiday operations.
Gate-turn tables often travel from one planning year to the next with little challenge. Peak seasons expose the soft spots: overlapping long-haul arrivals, late domestic banks, and temporary stands that change walking distances.
Pull last year’s actual on-block and off-block samples for the same calendar weeks you expect to protect. Compare them to the planning table, not to an ideal day in the shoulder season.
Watch for gate pairs that look fine on paper but share a single pier corridor. Walking conflict is a planning problem even when the stand clock looks healthy.
Update the table only where evidence is clear. Leaving a cautious buffer on contested gates is better than polishing every cell to an optimistic minute.