How airports can meet future needs

 

With more people taking to flying than before, cities around the world are building new airports and upgrading old terminals to create facilities capable of handling tens of millions of passengers. WOLE SHADARE writes

Managing growth

There is no question that in a world of open borders and global connections, mobility is a mega-trend. Air travel and transport generally are benefiting from this rapid development like no other mode of transportation. The challenge, then, is to manage this growth efficiently, securely, and safely and in a way that is compatible with the environment. It is also to bring airports’ entire infrastructure up to world-class standard and keep it there – from take-off and landing through ticketing.

Airport expansion is a key part of improving urban America’s infrastructure. The ability of major metros to attract corporations, workers and tourists depends at least in part on whether their airports can provide cheap, frequent flights around the world.

This has caused many municipalities to publicly subsidise mass expansions. Prominent among nations that are investing billions of dollars are Singapore, Istanbul, Dubai, United States, United Kingdom and China.

With more people than ever flying, cities around the world are building new airports and upgrading old terminals to create facilities capable of handling tens of millions of passengers.

The results are modern, stylish architectural statements that banish the dark, crowded travel spaces of the past.

Istanbul New Airport

Turkey has great ambitions to become a new meeting point between east and west. Its national carrier, Turkish Airlines, already flies to more countries than any other airline globally, and with the prosaically named Istanbul New Airport opening soon, the country now has a gateway to be proud of.

Replacing the older Atatürk Airport, it is a mega hub that will eventually be capable of handling 150 million passengers per year, perhaps even rivaling Dubai in terms of connecting travelers.

The airport’s official opening is scheduled for October 29, but the latest reports say it won’t be fully operational until the end of 2018.

Already open and handling cargo plus a small selection of passenger flights, Al Maktoum International Airport southwest of downtown Dubai is likely to one day be the largest and busiest in the world if the plans are to be believed.

Al Maktoum — commonly known as Dubai World Central — will one day have five runways, three terminals and be home to the huge fleets of superjumbos operated by Emirates. It will boast shorter walking distances for passengers, and a high-speed rail link to the center of Dubai.

The world’s favourite airport and Asian mega-hub, Singapore Changi, is eagerly working towards opening its new Jewel and Terminal 5.

The Jewel is an impressive glass multi-use area connecting the existing terminals and introducing shopping, eating and entertainment facilities for passengers and visitors to use. It will feature the world’s tallest indoor waterfall, and is set to open in 2019.

Terminal 5 will open to the east of the current terminals in the mid-2020s, with a capacity of 50 million annual passengers.

LaGuardia Airport (New York)

Coming not a minute too soon is the complete revamp and rebuild of the terminals and taxiways at New York’s crowded LaGuardia airport to create one unified terminal structure with more gates and more space, capable of handling the thousands of daily passengers.

The old low ceilings and cramped corridors in a confusing mix of different terminals will make way for light, airy spaces with plenty of windows and new amenities.

Other improvements include new parking facilities, taxiways, and a vital link to the New York City Metro.

Beijing Daxing International Airport

Another new airport for 2019 is Daxing International, which also has ambitions to become the largest and busiest in the world.

It will feature one of the largest passenger terminals in the world, which simultaneously reduces the amount of walk-time passengers need to undertake compared to similar hubs.

It will soon become home to China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines, which will move from the existing Beijing Capital Airport.

With a high-speed rail connection to the city and new motorway network, it has been built with the future in mind, with an eventual space for 100 million passengers per year and seven runways as China’s aviation industry continues to grow.

Africa takes back seat

While countries in Asia and the United States are building bigger airport terminals to make for growth in passenger capacity, African countries are trying their best to plan for the future to take more capacity.

While they spend several billions of dollars for infrastructure at the airports, many of the aerodromes are not viable.

Despite the huge sum of money spent to develop Nigerian airports, many of them are very unviable. For instance, Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, regarded as Nigeria’s busiest airport, only records between 10 and 11 million passengers annually both for international and domestic passengers.

Wasted resources

Many of the airport terminals embarked upon between 2012 and 2014 to many amounted to waste of resources. Perhaps, Nigeria would have built world class terminal at least in Lagos or Abuja had the over $1 billion spent on airport remodeling project spent on one modern aerodrome like what is obtained in Accra or Dakar.

Statistics for 2018 passenger traffic across the African continent shows that OR Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg, ranked as the busiest airport with 21,231,510. Cairo International Airport ranked second with 15,010,501; Bole International Airport, Addis Ababa recorded 12,143,938 traffic; Cape Town International Airport came fourth with 10,752,246 passengers.

 

Others were Mohammed V International Airport, Casablanca ranked fifth with 9,748,567; Houari Boumediene Airport, Algiers came sixth on the ranking with 7,900,000; Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi recorded 7,039,175; Hurghada International Airport, Egypt had 6,600,000 and the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos came in 11th position with 6,500,000.

The Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja recorded 3,600,000 coming behind Sharm El Sheikh International Airport, Egypt with 3,700,000 traffic.

Ghana, with its brand new terminal, processed 4.3 million passengers in 2018. No doubt, the country is building for the future and planning for massive passenger boost for the future.

Huge population, low traffic

Africa is home to about 1.2 billion people and considered the second largest continent. The total traffic for the 15 international airports in Africa for 2018 is approximately 115 million, little over the total 85,907,423 traffic for Atlanta Hartfield reputed to be the busiest airport in the world.

The new Istanbul Airport, which is capable of processing about 150 million passengers annually, is more than the entire traffic of over 15 major airports in the continent of Africa.

Director, Government, Legal and Industry, African Airlines Association (AFRAA), Aaron Munetsi, disclosed that only 19 per cent capacities of 419 African airports were utilised, while the other 81 per cent remain grossly under utilised.

In order to effectively use the airports to their full capacities, Munetsi called for cooperation among African governments, saying that it was necessary for them to open up their airspace in order to increase traffic to them.

Expert’s view

According to Munetsi, “the fact remains that airports on the continent are so under-utilised. The statistics that was shared recently by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) showed that all the airports in Africa only utilise 19 per cent of their capacities, which means over 80 per cent are abandoned.

“Even, the busiest airports, 80 per cent of their facilities are abandoned. The idea is to make sure that the ones we have are utilised to the maximum. It is only when we exceed their utilisation capacity that we can think of building new airports.”

Last line

This conundrum is at the heart of the challenge facing airport operators as they plan for the future. Unless an airport’s facilities drive the local economy forward and provide benefits back to the community, local politics can hamper or even stop progress in its tracks.

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