Airports Council International (ACI) Europe has hit out at the International Air Transport Association (IATA) for suggesting airport operators are to blame for the growing capacity crisis.
ACI Europe called the comments “ludicrous” and accused airlines of hoarding unused slots, preventing other carriers from using them.
In a White Paper published this week, IATA, the global airline industry body, warned that the shortage of airport capacity is hampering travel and economic growth.
It claimed that nearly 400 airports worldwide are struggling to meet demand, and this number could increase by 25% over the next decade.
IATA argued that airports must do more to maximise capacity from existing infrastructure since building new runways and terminals is politically unpopular.
“Some airports set strong benchmarks for maximising capacity, but too many fail to follow the guidance in the Worldwide Airport Slot Guidelines,” said Nick Careen, IATA’s Senior Vice President for Operations, Safety and Security.
“But as long as large-scale endeavours such as building new runways or terminals remain politically out-of-reach in many parts of the world, we must squeeze every last unit of capacity out of the infrastructure we have.”
In Europe, the situation is particularly acute, where it is predicted that airport infrastructure will be unable to meet up to 12% of demand by 2050.
IATA is calling for stronger regulations to hold airports accountable for maximising capacity, including requiring them to regularly review their capacity declarations and implement a meaningful consultation process. It also wants airports to face consequences if they fail to deliver the capacity they have promised.
“Under the slot regulations, airlines are obliged to utilise the slots they are granted efficiently or face penalties for cancelling flights or not operating to schedule. But airports face no penalties if they don’t deliver promised capacity. They have little pressure to meet global benchmarks on efficiency. Moreover, there is often insufficient transparency for the capacity declarations that they do make. This needs a major rebalancing so that airports and airlines are equally obliged to maximise the potential social and economic value of airport capacity,” said Careen
ACI Europe insisted that airports are already doing everything they can to maximise capacity and that it is airlines that are to blame for capacity wastage.
“IATA’s assumption that many airports are not doing enough to squeeze more capacity out of their existing infrastructure is ludicrous,” said Olivier Jankovec, ACI Europe’s Director General. “Airports are responsible and economically driven businesses – with both their business and social mandates resulting in a strong focus on maximising the use of their facilities.”
ACI Europe argued that airlines should return unused slots more quickly and refrain from hoarding slots that could be used by other airlines. It also wants to see the EU’s Airport Slot Regulation modernised to ensure better use of available capacity.


Capacity at many airports is at crisis point.