IATA warns that airport capacity is in crisis. It urges stricter slot regulations to maximize the efficiency of infrastructure and address the growing travel demand.
GENEVA – The International Air Transport Association (IATA) warned that the airport capacity crunch is threatening the freedom for people to travel, and constraining economies. With little prospect for airport infrastructure to fully keep pace with growing demand, IATA released a White Paper including proposals for how slot regulations must incentivize airports to generate more capacity from existing infrastructure.
In the last decade, the number of airports that cannot meet the demand in air connectivity and need slot coordination using IATA Worldwide Airport Slot Guidelines (WAGSL) has increased to almost 400. If current trends continue, the number of airports that cannot meet demand for air connectivity and require slot coordination using the IATA Worldwide Airport Slot Guidelines could grow by 25 percent over next decade.
Airports Council International Europe (ACI) expects that in 2050, airport infrastructure will not be able to meet up to 12 percent of demand. With large scale airport developments, especially new runways, unlikely to be built due to political constraints, this will further undermine Europe’s competitiveness which, as the Draghi report has concluded, is already significantly under-performing. Airports must use best practices to maximize the capacity of existing infrastructure.
“The only cure for inadequate capacity is construction.”
We must squeeze out every last bit of capacity from the infrastructure we already have, as long as large scale projects like building new terminals and runways are still politically unattainable for many countries. Some airports have set high standards for maximizing capacity, while others fail to follow the Worldwide Airport Slot Guidelines,” explained Nick Careen, IATA SVP of Operations, Safety and Security.
The IATA White Paper published on airport slots calls on airports and airports to take greater responsibility for maximising capacity.
“Under slot regulations, airlines must use the slots they receive efficiently or risk penalties for canceling flights or not operating according to schedule. Airports are not penalized if they fail to deliver on capacity promises. They are not under any pressure to achieve global benchmarks in efficiency. There is also often a lack of transparency in the capacity declarations they do make. “This needs a major rebalancing, so that airports as well as airlines are equally obligated to maximize the social and economic potential of airport capacity,” said Careen.
IATA specifically calls for changes to slot regulations, which will hold airports responsible if they don’t do enough to increase capacity, such as:
- To ensure greater transparency, airports should be required to review their capacity statements on a regular schedule and implement a meaningful consultation process to identify areas where capacity is being neglected.
- Obligation to improve and increase capability where possible, benchmarked with global best practices.
- Consequences for not delivering on capacity as promised.
“The current airport-slot regulations have created a global air transportation network that offers ever-increasing accessibility, consumer choice and cheaper fares. We need airports to perform better in order for the slot system’s benefits to continue to grow. It is necessary to tighten regulations in order to close the gap between the top and the middle-tier airports when it comes capacity. This will improve service for passengers and increase accessibility to air travel, bringing more benefits to the entire world,” said Careen.
