Field notes · 11 November 2025
Reading dwell times in departure halls
How terminal planners can separate retail dwell from delayed boarding without mistaking one for the other.
Dwell figures look simple until a planner must defend them in a capacity paper. A long stay near the gate may mean a late aircraft, a family waiting for a connecting passenger, or genuine retail time that never threatens boarding.
Start by splitting observation windows: early bag-drop arrivals, mid-hall lingering, and final call clustering. Each window answers a different planning question. Mixing them into one average hides the pressure that actually matters for gate lounge size.
In Thai holiday peaks, retail dwell often rises while boarding queues lengthen in the same hour. Note both. Your seasonal staffing note needs the queue; your commercial landlord conversation needs the linger.
When you brief stakeholders, show the method before the number. Planners who explain how dwell was timed earn more trust than those who only quote a single mean.