The future is going to be challenging of course, for airports as for every other part of an aviation sector that is changing rapidly on an almost daily basis. The last few years have been difficult for much of the industry – but for airports it has been a complex, mixed picture, as Angela Gittens, director general of Airports Council International (ACI) explains.
Challenges have depended to a large degree on geographical location. For gateways in North America and Western Europe, the economic meltdown suffered in those regions has led to a slowdown, or even stagnation, in traffic. This is not to say that the long-term trends of rising throughput and all the problems that go along with heavy congestion can be ignored; airports in the developed world remain extremely busy and investment in their future expansion has had to be maintained.
In parts of the world such as Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, the recent history of gateways there has been one of continued rapid growth, with all the issues associated with boosting the capacity of airports remaining in stark focus. However, according to Gittens, many of the gateways in Asia have been particularly helped by national governments that have realised the “absolute driver to economic vitality” that airports represent. They also regard these gateways as a positive showcase of their country’s health and prosperity.
In Africa, the authorities are coming round to appreciating the value of the aviation sector and, indeed, for getting across large distances of the continent, let alone for trans-continental journeys, flying is by far the most practical way to get around. In this region, it is less the spatial constraints to airport expansion than the commitment to capital investment that has posed a challenge in airport development.
In Latin America, too, gateways have called out for modernisation and expansion and in places such as Brazil the government has understood the need and turned to the private sector for the necessary capital. The results of the region’s developing airport sector can be seen in such examples as Ecuador’s soon-to-open airport in Quito and the brand new terminal at Guayaquil’s José Joaquín de Olmedo International airport.
Similarities and differences
This is a very broad-brush summary, of course. All airports, on whatever continent they are sited, face markedly different challenges. Not only will those challenges depend on location (taking in factors such as climate, terrain and even the geometry of a gateway’s layout), but other variables such as the economic environment in which they operate, political factors and of course the culture of the society around it. Even at the local level, differences can be marked.
To take just one example, Gittens illustrates, New York has three major airports, all of which maintain an entirely different business model, even though JFK, LaGuardia and Newark are all operated by the same airport authority, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ).
Despite the many differences, however, it remains indisputable that airports right around the world are also facing many of the same challenges. Most obviously: “The aviation sector is definitely going to grow,” she observes. “There will be winners and losers but growth is inevitable.”
Thus a large proportion of the world’s airports will need to expand their capacity in the near or medium-term future. There is no shortage of models available as to how to do this – numerous consultancy firms and big engineering companies have offered their thoughts on various big development programmes – but for each gateway the approach is going to need to differ because of their own unique characteristics and challenges.
Certainly, as expansion at airports such as Frankfurt has shown, the right land planning strategy is vital, given the strength of today’s environmental and noise abatement lobbies at national and local levels. Moreover, the investment required for these sorts of expansion programmes is massive and the timeframe for development can run into decades.
To meet the needs of increased traffic, many airports will grow organically, but the industry will also have to become more efficient. Not only will gateways need to improve, so too will other aspects of the aviation business. According to Gittens, that improved efficiency will be seen in a number of areas, one of which is improved air traffic management (ATM) that will allow for increased numbers of take-offs and landings, as well as more crowded skies.
For example, greater automation of processes will mean smaller aircraft separation distances will be required, she considers. The sort of technology that can move the sector forward is already there, Gittens points out; its introduction is more a question of overcoming political and/or cultural friction.
Collaboration is critical
Greater efficiency at airports and across the aviation sector will come about in large part through much closer collaboration throughout the industry, she also contends. The three legs to the aviation stool – airports, airlines/aircraft and ATM – have grown up fairly independently, but they now need to work much more closely together, Gittens says.
What she calls “collaborative decision-making” should be the norm right across the industry, she continues. By working together, the various partners in the aviation sector can achieve much more than if they do not co-operate closely. Just as that is the case at the airport/airline/ATM level, so ACI works closely with bodies such as ICAO (the International Civil Aviation Organization, which regulates and promotes co-operation throughout the aviation sector), IATA (the International Air Transport Association, the trade body representing air carriers) and CANSO (the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation, the trade body for ATM) to move the aviation sector forward in a collaborative and positive way.
“Unless we do work together, we run the risk of strangling ourselves,” Gittens declares. Similarly, if the needs of other parties are not taken into account – the need to protect the environment, for example – therein lies danger. “We need a balanced, collective approach across the industry” to meet the needs of tomorrow, she urges.
Investment
Of course, not all problems can be solved purely by more effective co-operation. For some challenges, significant investment is also required. That is certainly the case in regard to the heavy congestion that so many airports now face – a problem that is likely to worsen as passenger and freight traffic is forecast to continue to increase rapidly.
Congestion at, and on the way to and from, airports can be eased in part by better transport links to the gateway (the responsibility of local and national governments), while within airport terminals speeding throughput will largely depend on greater automation. A lot of good work has already been done in this area, Gittens enthuses, such as introducing self-service check-in and encouraging passenger to do more at home in preparation for their flight prior to leaving for the airport.
The time taken to screen passengers and freight at airports has long been a bugbear and ICAO is certainly looking at this issue in depth. A good deal of experimentation and testing is being undertaken in this regard, for instance in improving screening technology that will be able to handle higher volumes of people at a faster rate. But the answer will also have to lie in streamlined processes, including advanced screening such as through ‘preferred shippers’ in the freight world and ‘trusted travelers’ in the passenger environment.
The bigger, and sometimes heavier, aircraft filling our skies also have to be handled at the world’s airports, requiring further investment in infrastructure. But, according to ACI, much of the additional spending that it seemed at first would be required might in fact not actually be needed. For example, many of those airports handling the ultra-large aircraft such as the A380 are serving well-travelled trunk routes and are well used to heavy equipment and large aircraft – while gateways in regions such as the Far East that are handling the aircraft also have plenty of space in which to expand their stands and other facilities as required.
Beyond the obvious
ACI has other priorities that it is seeking to address. One of them is safety. “As an industry, we are always looking to drive down the accident rate but rapid growth can cause problems of safety,” she observes.
Furthermore, ACI is not content to deal with just accidents and those ‘incidents’ that have the potential to turn into accidents. “We are also focusing now on the ‘safety environment’,” she says. This means introducing a ‘safety culture’ at gateways, ingraining safety as a priority in all aspects of an airport’s operations.
It is doing this within a programme it calls APEX ‘Airport Excellence in Safety’. Within this initiative, ACI performs safety reviews on-site for airports, identifying gaps in safety culture and offering an implementation plan as to how that culture can be ingrained in all day-to-day operations. Part of the strategy is to ensure that all individuals at an airport “feel safe to say when something isn’t safe”, Gittens explains.
Other developments in the world of the airport will see much greater use of social media in the future, she believes. Everyone is customising their service, Gittens highlights, and airports are no different. With passengers so much more comfortable with this sort of technology, airports will utilise social media more and more frequently for functions such as parking, ticketing, screening and even shopping.
Finally, she is expecting airports to make even better use of their valuable land assets. With revenue from on-site retail activity now such a vital part of so many airports’ revenue streams, this and other businesses including high-end hotels are only likely to grow in importance for airports, Gittens concludes.
