AIRPORT WORLD 2025, ISSUE 05
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Airport Profile: Queen Alia
Special Report: New Infrastructure
Plus: Connectivity; Cybersecurity; IT Innovation;
Clear skies ahead
Editor, Joe Bates, reflects on a busy and eventful year for Airport World and the ‘passenger facilitation’ theme of this issue.
With our December/January 2026 issue being published in January next year, it feels right to use my last opinion piece of 2025 to reflect on an unexpectedly eventful year for Airport World magazine.
Now under new ownership and operating as an independent publication for the first time in our 30-year history, it is fair to say that this year hasn’t been without its challenges.
Nevertheless, it hasn’t stopped us from producing some terrific issues, starting with our ‘new technology’ themed first issue of 2025 in which Pittsburgh International Airport was our lead airport feature, followed by issues focused on ‘safety & security’, ‘planning & design’, ‘innovation’ and now ‘passenger facilitation’.
In addition to Pittsburgh (PIT), we have turned the spotlight on Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport; Lithuania’s airport system; Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport; and Incheon International Airport, while covering a multitude of issues ranging from the pioneering design and construction of new facilities, robotic technology and sustainability leadership to the opening of a ‘hotel’ for dogs at Rome Fiumicino Airport.
Now on a more stable footing, I am confident that we will do even better next year as we strive to showcase airport excellence and address the challenges and exciting opportunities facing the industry today.
My confidence in the future is boosted by the continued loyalty of our readers and the fact that we remain on good terms with ACI World. Indeed, I look forward to catching up with director general Justin Erbacci and many more of the ACI World team at the upcoming Airports Innovate conference in Busan, South Korea, at the end of November.
So, what of this issue? The theme of the October/ November edition is ‘passenger facilitation’, a topic that encompasses everything from the provision of good customer service and operational efficiency to utilising passenger friendly facilities.
In the themed section we take a closer look at San Diego International Airport’s new Terminal 1; digital wayfinding; innovative F&B; and the key role restrooms play in the overall airport experience for passengers.
The section also contains features about enhancing communication with passengers; how airline digitalisation will transform airport departure halls; and Quito’s decision to embrace sunflower lanyards for passengers with hidden disabilities.
The lead airport feature is on Amman’s Queen Alia International Airport, where Airport International Group (AIG) CEO, Nicolas Deviller, tells us more about the growth, development and expansion plans of Jordan’s air gateway to the world.
Elsewhere in this issue, we have a special report on new infrastructure that covers the planning, development and, in some cases the opening, of key new facilities across the globe.
Competition for connecting passengers in the Middle East; the latest IT innovation at Singapore Changi Airport; cybersecurity; safeguarding airport operations from litigation; and how artwork and advertising can work together at airports also come under the microscope in this issue.
We round the issue out with our regular ‘people matters’ column and airport supplier news and views in the ‘business exchange’ section.
I hope you agree that it’s another cracking issue of your favourite airport magazine. We look forward to bringing you more of the same in 2026.
