IATA: Airport Capacity Crunch Threatens Freedom to Travel

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has warned that the airport capacity crunch is threatening the freedom for people to travel, and constraining economies, noting that there is little prospect for airport infrastructure to fully keep pace with growing demand.

This is contained in a white paper released recently, which included proposals for how slot regulations must incentivize airports to generate more capacity from existing infrastructure.

IATA stated that the number of airports unable to fully meet the demand for air connectivity and requiring slot coordination using the IATA Worldwide Airport Slot Guidelines has already grown to nearly 400 worldwide. If current trends prevail, this number could grow by 25 per cent over the next decade.

An example of the severe consequences of this growing problem is evident in Europe where Airports Council International (ACI) Europe expects that airport infrastructure will be unable to meet up to 12 per cent of demand in 2050.

According to IATA’s SVP for Operations, Safety and Security, Nick Careen, “The only cure for insufficient capacity is construction. But as long as large-scale endeavors such as building new runways or terminals remain politically out-of-reach in many parts of the world, we must squeeze every last unit of capacity out of the infrastructure we have. Some airports set strong benchmarks for maximizing capacity, but too many fail to follow the guidance in the Worldwide Airport Slot Guidelines.”

The newly published IATA White Paper on airport slots calls for stronger obligations on the part of airports to maximise capacity.

“Under the slot regulations, airlines are obliged to utilise the slots they are granted efficiently or face penalties for cancelling flights, or not operating to schedule. But airports face no penalties if they don’t deliver promised capacity,” Careen said.