AIRPORT WORLD 2024, ISSUE 01
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Airport profile: Santiago de Chile
Design & Build: Bengaluru-Kempegowda & Jackson Hole
Plus: Sustainability; IT Innovation; People Matters; and ACI news
Growth trajectory
Editor, Joe Bates, reflects on the continued upturn in global traffic and the ‘connectivity’ theme of this issue of Airport World.
While it is, of course, difficult to predict the future, rising traffic figures across the globe and expectations of better things to come this year would indicate that the aviation industry is finally back on track and set to resume its pre-pandemic growth trajectory in 2024.
If you recall, when speaking at the Airports Innovate conference in Oman last November, Sheikh Aimen Bin Ahmed Al Hosni, CEO of Oman Airports and the then chair of the ACI World Governing Board, told delegates that 2024 would be “a milestone year for aviation” with passenger numbers at the world’s airports exceeding 2019 levels by at least 200 million.
As recently released figures by ACI EUROPE show, last year was a particularly good one for the continent’s airports in terms of their recovery from COVID, with a total of 2.3 billion passengers passing through their facilities in 2023 – just 5.3% below pre-pandemic levels.
For the record, London Heathrow regained its status as Europe’s busiest airport in 2023, handling 79.2 million passengers – close to 30% more than the previous year. iGA Istanbul Airport, which welcomed a healthy 76 million passengers (+18.3%) was the next busiest.
On the strength of last year’s performance, ACI EUROPE believes that passenger traffic across the continent will rise by 7.2% in 2024, ensuring a modest 1.4% rise on pre-pandemic volumes.
Looking further into the future, as you will be able to read more about in this ‘connectivity’ themed issue, ACI World’s newly released annual World Airport Traffic Forecasts (WATF) 2023–2052 dataset indicates that global passenger traffic is set to double over the next 20 years, by which time China will have replaced the US as the world’s biggest aviation market.
ACI World director general, Luis Felipe de Oliveira, says: “The projections indicate that global passenger traffic is set to reach 9.7 billion by the end of 2024, surpassing pre-pandemic levels, and suggest a doubling by 2042 and a 2.5-fold increase by 2052.
“In the long-term, the global passenger market dynamic is expected to transition from advanced economies towards emerging and developing ones as they experience significant urbanisation and population increases, often combined with rapid economic growth favourably impacting their disposable income and willingness to travel.
“Investing responsibly in current and new infrastructure remains key to ensuring that we can sustainably meet capacity growth to maximise the social and economic benefits of aviation.”
In addition to looking at potential future growth and the drivers behind it, the ‘connectivity’ themed section of this issue contains articles about route development; multimodalism; evolving airline route networks; and the importance of engaging with local communities, especially when it comes to getting support for developments projects.
Our main airport feature shines the spotlight on Santiago’s Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport and CEO, François-Régis Le Mière, who tells us more about recent developments at Chile’s gateway to the world and his hopes and expectations for the year ahead.
Elsewhere in the issue we hear from ACI World director general, Luis Felipe de Oliveira, about some of the key connectivity challenges facing airports; take a closer look at Bengaluru-Kempegowda’s new Terminal 2; and report on the completion of the multi-phased terminal renovation and expansion programme at Jackson Hole Airport.
We also report on the latest sustainability efforts from airports across the globe and consider how airports can potentially benefit from the airlines selling more retail products and goods direct to passengers.
Last, but not least, we reflect on connectivity in our regular ‘people matters’ column; and report on the latest news from ACI’s World Business Partners (WBP) in an extended four-page section.
I hope you enjoy our first issue of the year and look forward to bringing you more news, views and developments from airports across the globe throughout 2024.
