Airport capacity planning and operational resilience management

Cheng-Lung Wu, Maurizio Tomasella and Kam Hung Ng

Chapter 19 in Research Handbook on Air Transport Management, 2026, pp 248-260 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Airport capacity planning is deeply influenced by limited airport infrastructure, dynamic air traffic management, flight congestion, uncertainties in actual operations, and profit-driven airline scheduling. Airport strategic capacity planning aims to guide stakeholders on practical airport capacity by considering historical operations, airline schedules, meteorological conditions, and air traffic management technologies. While it is impossible to eliminate flight congestion and delays at busy airports, operational resilience has emerged as a key concept for future airport operations and capacity management. With rising global aviation demand, there is a need for better utilisation of airfield infrastructure in operations because building new infrastructure can be both time-consuming and costly for airports. In operations, a configurable runway design allows the runway operation mode to dynamically switch between landing and take-off modes to accommodate variations in runway demand. Enhancing runway capacity by reducing aircraft wake-related separation standards presents a promising strategy to accommodate increasing air traffic volumes. Under constrained airport capacity, airlines adopt several strategies to maximise their operations and profits, including fleet (re)assignment, schedule adjustment, flight network adjustment, and congestion management. This chapter explains how operational resilience, technological advancements, and adaptive scheduling can enhance airport capacity planning in a high-demand, resource-limited aviation industry.

Keywords: Airport operational resilience; Airport capacity; Air traffic management; Airline schedules; Airport congestion; Airfield infrastructure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035336272
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