The Case for More Space: Airlines are thrilled with how fast demand is growing. But airports struggle to keep up

The Case for More Space: Airlines are thrilled with how fast demand is growing. But airports struggle to keep up

June 2018
1 min read
Seth Kaplan

Issue Overview

You can set your watch to it. Global airline demand, measured by RPK traffic, doubles every 15 years. It did so during the past 15 years. It did so in the 15 years prior. And it’s forecast to do so again in the next 15 years. In 1960, 100m people travelled by air, according to Boeing. The number today is fast approaching four billion. In 20 years, IATA thinks, the figure will top 7b. Population growth, economic growth, deregulation, new aircraft technologies, new airline business models… all were instrumental in driving the industry’s phenomenal growth, and they likely will be…