Long-term evolution of airport networks: Optimization model and its application to the United States

•An optimization model for airport network capacity expansion is proposed.•Model objective is the maximization of total airport system throughput.•Impact of air travel costs upon demand is explicitly taken into account.•Different methods for solving the model are proposed and compared.•Usefulness of the model is illustrated in an application to the United States.

In this article, we introduce an optimization model aimed to assist aviation authorities in their strategic decisions regarding the long-term expansion of a network of airports. The objective is to maximize total system throughput for a given budget taking into account the capacity of the airports and the impact of travel costs upon demand. The results that can be obtained through the application of the model are first illustrated for a hypothetical small-size network and then in a study regarding the evolution of the network of the principal airports of the United States.