Airlines have bigger nightmare than fuel—a runway shortage

With global passenger numbers forecast to almost double to US$7.8b by 2036, runways, airports and even airspace could rapidly become too crowded to cope. In Asia, which will contribute more than half of the extra flyers, many terminals are already full to bursting. “Infrastructure is a bigger threat to the growth of airlines than the price of oil,” Qatar Airways CE Akbar Al Baker said Tuesday. “There is today a capacity shortage of more than a billion passengers across the globe.” At stake is the $2.7t that IATA estimates the industry contributes each year to the wider global economy, as well as the expansion plans of planemakers and major airlines. “It’s not just runways, it’s also taxiing areas, it’s parking stands,” said one transport expert. “Economies will get slowed down by not having sufficient capacity.” <br/>