Remote Stand Occupancy Without the Heatmap Hype
Heatmaps look impressive in board packs, but the number executives need first is simpler — how many minutes remote stands sit empty between banks.
Remote stands carry a reputation for inefficiency, but the waste is not always where planners assume. In a gate utilization study last autumn, contact stands at a Gyeonggi-do airport averaged 78% occupancy during the morning bank while remotes ran at 94% — the opposite of the narrative that remotes sit idle.
The useful metric was gap time: minutes between off-blocks of one aircraft and on-blocks of the next. Remotes averaged 22 minutes empty; contacts averaged 41. Contacts looked busier on a heatmap because block times were longer, not because turnover was faster.
We now include a one-page "gap table" in every utilization report before the heatmap. Executives grasp it immediately: empty minutes × bus cycle cost = the number that drives stand assignment debates.
If your capacity committee only sees color gradients, ask for the gap table first. It is less photogenic and more honest.