Do airport capacity constraints have a serious impact on the future development of air traffic?

The air transport industry is one characterised by long-term growth, at least on the demand side. The question is whether or not the airport infrastructure side will be suited to accommodate future air traffic, given the fact that there are already now important hub airports that suffer from capacity bottlenecks. The paper analyses the general capacity constraint situation by comparing traffic with capacity for the largest 1000 airports in the global network. In deriving peak hour volumes and capacity utilisation indices from annual volumes we identify those airports that currently face capacity problems and those that will in the near future.

► Air transport is characterised by a long term demand growth. ► Important hub airports already suffer from capacity bottlenecks. ► Necessary capacity expansion plans may be delayed due to opposition from the public. ► Capacity utilisation as the ratio of an average hour and 5% peak hour volume. ► In 2008, 6% of all flights were operated at capacity constrained airports.