IATA, ACI Europe Loudly Differ On Airport Capacity Approach

Aviation Week
Helen Massy-Beresford
19 December 2024

The separate associations representing global airlines and European airports are in vocal opposition on the problem of squeezed airport capacity, after ACI Europe said IATA’s assumption that airports were not doing enough with their existing infrastructure was “ludicrous.”

On Dec. 18, IATA published a white paper entitled “Future Airport Slot Policy and the Airline Industry” in which it warned that the airport capacity crunch was threatening people’s freedom to travel and constrained economies. The organization put forward proposals on how slot regulations should incentivize airports to generate more capacity from existing infrastructure.

The white paper called for modifications to slot regulations that will hold airports accountable if they are not doing enough to create more capacity.

IATA said it wanted airports to be required to review their capacity declarations on a regular basis, and implement a meaningful capacity consultation process, to ensure greater transparency and reveal where potential capacity increases are being neglected.

ACI Europe, however, pointed to “misconceptions” in IATA’s comments, saying the organization was shifting blame onto other stakeholders. But ACI Europe did agree with IATA that the airport capacity crunch had returned in full force since the pandemic...

ACI Europe said EU airport slot regulation needed to be modernized to ease the problem.

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