Maintenance in airport infrastructure: A bibliometric analysis and future research directions

Maintenance in airport infrastructures (MAI) has tempted scientists and practitioners worldwide. It is explained mainly by the critical maintenance function in this field. Maintenance costs represent a significant part of airport infrastructure operating costs. Therefore, Maintenance management methods are becoming increasingly essential, knowing that any damage can substantially affect airport infrastructures. To avoid this, many tools related to BIM will detect all possible failures and solve them before their appearance. This type of management is called Predictive maintenance. This study conducted a bibliometric analysis to evaluate the current level of research on the Maintenance of Airport Infrastructure. Thanks to the Web of Science database, a search of documents coping with MAI has been realized. It is a world-leading publisher-independent global citation database. The investigation identified 489 papers, and the data collected was analyzed utilizing a bibliometric tool called Bibliometrix from the Web of Science database (WoS). Key findings are presented and discussed, followed by potential future research avenues.

Automated summary

Maintenance in airport infrastructures has attracted scientists and practitioners worldwide due to its critical function. Maintenance costs account for a significant part of airport infrastructure operating costs. Therefore, the use of maintenance management methods and tools, such as BIM, is essential to detect and solve potential failures before they occur. This study conducted a bibliometric analysis to evaluate current research levels and identify potential future research avenues in airport infrastructure maintenance.