INTERNATIONAL. Airports Council International (ACI) World has called for greater action to enable airports to keep up with projected growth in air travel in the coming decades.
The latest ACI World Airport Traffic forecasts have predicted that global traffic will double from the 8.8 billion passengers of 2018 by 2037, and that traffic will reach 19.7 billion by 2040.
The global growth will be driven by the Asia Pacific region, ACI suggests, with China projected to surpass the US as the world’s largest passenger market by 2031. By 2040, India and Indonesia are expected to occupy third and fourth place respectively.
ACI World Director General Angela Gittens said the results showed a “positive” future for the industry, but cautioned that capacity constraints, climate change and isolationist politics jeopardised the growth forecast.
“Isolationist policies have fuelled a retraction from decades of progress toward greater global economic integration which will inevitably restrain the efficient flow of people, goods and services,” she said.
“While it is evident air transport very much relies on open markets to grow, it is also evident that, in markets with strong air transport demand, airport operators already face capacity constraints that could limit growth.
“Action must be taken to address this growing infrastructure gap. Given that more than 200 airports already require slot coordination because they have insufficient capacity to meet demand, government regulators must come together with the aviation industry to ensure that existing capacity can be better utilised while facilitating new and improved infrastructure to improve efficiency and the passenger experience.”
