Europe’s airports are entering a period of structural strain marked by capacity constraints, rising costs and greater operational volatility—pressures that will require a rethink of how airports manage performance, according to ACI Europe Director General Olivier Jankovec.
Speaking at GAD World in Lisbon, Jankovec said airports can no longer operate as infrastructure providers reacting to external pressures, but must instead assume a more proactive, system-wide leadership role.
“Running an airport is a bit akin to running a factory that you invested in, but which throughput you don't really control,” he said. That lack of control—driven by airline behavior, third-party operations and external shocks—is no longer compatible with the scale of the challenges facing the sector. Airports, he warned, must “become the masters of our own capacity.”
Jankovec described a European aviation system entering a period of structural strain. Passenger demand has remained resilient, with traffic above 2019 levels in 2024, but the recovery is highly uneven. “Only 53% of our airports in Europe have actually recovered their pre-pandemic traffic,” he said, highlighting wide performance gaps across regions and airport sizes. Some small regional airports, in particular, “are still way behind where they were pre-pandemic.”
Although revenues have returned, Jankovec cautioned that financial stability is fragile. “We have shut down on investments, and also we have grown our debt,” he said. Airport debt levels are now close to 30% above 2019 after limited government support during COVID forced extensive borrowing.
At the same time, Europe faces an emerging capacity crunch. Even with all currently planned expansions included, Eurocontrol forecasts that “1.1 million flights in Europe will not be accommodated because of the lack of airport capacity” by 2050.
Political pressure in some countries, most notably the Netherlands, also raises the risk of governments “looking at reducing structural capacity of the main hub,” while sustainability policy will amplify both cost and capacity constraints. EU decarbonization measures alone will add €1.3 trillion ($1.5 trillion) in systemwide costs for European aviation by 2050, Jankovec said.
The airport sector is therefore entering “an era where growth is not volume-driven,” forcing airports to “decouple financial viability from volume growth” while facing “structural downward pressure on our revenues” alongside rising costs.
To manage capacity more effectively, airports must break operational silos and accelerate digitalization. Jankovec pointed to emerging tools, including automation, generative and agentic AI, that could enable “super airport operation centers” and predictive decision-making.
Related Content
