Global airports face several challenges due to capacity crunches, as passenger demand exceeds infrastructure and operational capabilities in many countries.

Excessive passenger volumes have led to long queues at check-in counters, security checkpoints, immigration desks, and boarding gates in many airports.

Overburdened runways and taxiways cause bottlenecks, leading to take-off and landing delays.

Delays at one airport often disrupt schedules across interconnected flight networks.

Limited gate availability will result in aircraft delays, as they have to wait for gates to free up, adding to turnaround times.

Another major challenge due to airport capacity constraints is baggage handling. Overloaded systems will invariably lead to lost or delayed luggage.

Recently, 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 incentivise airports to generate more capacity from existing infrastructure.

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% 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% of demand in 2050.

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. It is therefore vital that airports deploy best practice to deliver as much capacity from existing infrastructure as possible.

“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 maximising capacity, but too many fail to follow the guidance in the Worldwide Airport Slot Guidelines,” said Nick Careen, IATA’s senior vice-president for Operations, Safety and Security.

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. They have little pressure to meet global benchmarks on efficiency.

“Moreover, there is often insufficient transparency for the capacity declarations that they do make. This needs a major rebalancing so that airports and airlines are equally obliged to maximise the potential social and economic value of airport capacity,” said Careen.

Specifically, IATA calls for modifications to slot regulations that will hold airports to account if they are not doing enough to create more capacity, including:

Requiring airports to review their capacity declarations on a regular basis, and implementing a meaningful capacity consultation process, to ensure greater transparency and reveal where potential capacity increases are being neglected.

Obligations to improve and increase capacity where possible, benchmarked against global best practice.

Consequences if declared capacity is not delivered as promised.

“The current airport slots regulations have helped create a global air transport network which delivers ever-increasing connectivity, consumer choice, and cheaper fares. For the slot system to continue growing these benefits, we need performance obligations on airports.

“Stronger regulation is needed to close the enormous gap between the best and the mediocre airports in delivering capacity. That will give better service to passengers with greater accessibility to air transport and bring more benefits to the world,” said Careen.

Industry experts say airports with huge capacity constraints will not attract airlines and passengers, affecting competitive positioning.

Their inability to meet growing passenger demand limits tourism, trade, and economic growth in connected regions.

Addressing these challenges, experts point out, requires innovative solutions, such as investing in new technologies like automated check-in and biometric security, expanding infrastructure where feasible, and enhancing collaboration between airlines, airports, and regulatory bodies to optimise airspace and schedules.