The document discusses key challenges facing airport operators regarding airport expansions. It notes that Asia Pacific is projected to overtake North America as the top region for air traffic by 2030 due to rapid urbanization and economic growth in developing countries. However, airport expansions require careful planning to address issues such as return on investment versus cost of capital, aligning infrastructure with airline fleet and passenger growth plans, implementing strong security measures while maintaining passenger experience, and balancing economic benefits with environmental concerns. The document promotes attending the Airfield Engineering and Asset Maintenance 2013 conference to learn best practices for ensuring operational efficiency and safety in airfield expansions and maintenance.

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- David Wilson, COO of Edinburgh Airport
and a speaker at the Airfield Engineering
and Asset Maintenance 2013
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Recent reports from the aviation industry put Asia Pacific as the
top region to conquer world traffic by 2030. According to Airbus’
Global Market Forecast 2011-2030, “North America, which still
dominates world traffic today, will be overtaken by the AsiaPacific region by 2030, making this dynamic region the world’s
largest air travel market. For instance, traffic within the AsiaPacific region will represent 25% of total traffic in twenty years, up
from 19% in 2010.
On a global scale, the trend shows an upward swing in passenger
traffic propelled mainly by the high degree of urbanisation
happening at a rapid pace. Global Market Forecast 2011-2030 by
Airbus explains:
“For the first time in history, more than half of world’s population,
3.5 billion people, lives in urban centers. By 2030, 59%, ~5 billion

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people will live in cities. During
the next two decades, developing
countries will absorb nearly a
billion additional urban dwellers
with China (900 million city
dwellers) and India (600 million)
leading the way. Rates of urban
growth in developing countries
have been higher than that of
developed countries.
“Cities have become the main
driver of globalization and the
engine of economic growth. They
have quickly transformed their
economies through international
trade, attracting large
multinational corporations,
international media and foreign
tourism. Importantly, a rise in
urban population has historically
led to an increase in per capita
GDP, a key driver for aviation.
“According to a Mc Kinsey
Global Institute study, cities on
average, account for more than
50% of gross domestic product in
almost all countries. In fact,
urbanization provides crucial
opportunities for people in search
of higher income and a better
standard of living. World GDP is
becoming less unequally
distributed as globalization and
urbanization proceed.”
The report further continues: “As
globalization blurs national
borders and intensifies
competition, cities from the
developing world, such as
Shanghai, Beijing, Seoul,
Mumbai, Delhi, Dubai are also
quickly becoming economic
giants, in turn attracting a high
number of air traffic passengers.
The emergence of global cities
and global companies will
increase the demand and
connectivity between cities and
will drive the shape and
development of the air
transport.”
This in turn, will necessitate the
need for airport expansion that
must be planned and studied,
today.
Nagging Dilemmas
But while airport expansion
seems logical, execution of plans
could be a totally different thing
as important, and sometimes
conflicting issues, emerge.
Among the top dilemmas faced
by airport operators include:
Cost of capital vis-à-vis
improved ROI
Cost of capital is always an issue,
no doubt about that. The conflict
sometimes arise when justifying

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return on investment (ROI) as
this will always be the first
question that will be asked. In
dealing with this issue, industry
experts opine that it is important
to understand your airport and
region. This may sound
straightforward, but to truly
develop the economic growth of
emerging airport, it is important
to understand your airport inside
out. This means not only its
internal challenges, operations
and staff, but also how the
airport fits with other external
factors and overall regional
development.
According to David Wilson,
Chief Operating Officer of
Edinburgh Airport, “return on
investment can be quite
challenging in the current
economic climate, certainly in the
European economic sector at
present. We have to balance the
cost of capital projects with likely
income and growth that we
anticipate and forecast.
Airport expansion vis-à-vis
airline expansion
When deciding airport
expansion, it is necessary to keep
it aligned with the airline
expansion plans. Working with
the airline to anticipate in
advance, what type of fleet
replacement plans they have and
if they are going to upsize the
type of aircraft that they operate,
for example, 737 up to 757 or a
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Boeing 777. Edinburgh Airport’s Mr.
Wilson also added: “Ensuring that
the infrastructure meets airline
growth plans and anticipating both
the passenger numbers and the
aircraft size ensures our taxiways and
stand meet the needs of specific
aircraft size and dimensions.
“Therefore, we have to be very
focused on the future plans of our
airline customers to ensure that we
have the appropriate infrastructure in
place,” he concludes.
Airport security vis-à-vis passenger
experience
With the recent high profile security
lapses that happened in some of the
biggest airports in the world, the
focus on security couldn’t be
overemphasized. In the US,
implementation of full body scanners
at its busiest airports has caused
much furor among its air traffic
passengers. The issue of security is
not only confined in the US as
different regions in the world also
have to deal with the same nagging
dilemma.
According to Andrew Mc Clumpha,
Director of Leigh Fisher, a noted
airport consulting firm, in a recent
interview, “With tremendous
increase in traffic at the region’s
airports, it is vitally important that
security staffs handling various
security screening procedures are
able to do so in an error tolerant and
threat mitigating manner. Awareness
of the importance of ensuring foolproof security while at the same time
providing passengers with efficient
service is continually, and even more
so, of the utmost importance,”
Economic benefits vis-à-vis
environmental concerns
In the next five years, China will
invest over 1.5 trillion yuan
(US$235 billion) to transform its
civil aviation industry. Of this
amount, 425 billion yuan (US$
66.6) is estimated to be spent in
airport construction. This
staggering amount is expected to
boost China’s economy as well as
improve its strategic importance
within the region, if not, globally.
And this is just one example.
Similar examples can be found
across the different regions of the
world as an airport can be a
significant economic driver for
regional growth, and vice versa.
However, this is not as
straightforward as it seems.
Concerns about the residual
impact of such developments
abound. Some quarters point out
that it is a quality of life issue,
mainly due to noise and
pollution, which has a wider
environmental impact. The
negative effects of exposure to
excessively-loud noise and
pollution, which tend to affect
the residents nearby, have been
well documented. The work to
reduce the environmental impact
must be done therefore,
consistently and treated as top
priority within the airport
management.

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