SUMMARY

Envisioning the Future of U.S. Airports

If U.S. airports were to rally around a realistic but aspirational vision for their future, what would it include? In the present day, airports face funding and capacity constraints, potential new entrants into aviation (uncrewed aircraft and advanced air mobility), workforce challenges, and operational pressures from climate change. Over the next several decades, airports will need to navigate these issues, as well as others that may arise. While a shared vision for the future will not allow airports to automatically achieve a more desirable future, it can provide a sense of direction and common aspiration for what could be achieved. For this project, experts across the industry worked to develop such a vision for U.S. airports in 2050.

Approach

The research team first conducted a literature review on a variety of topics, including airport governance, funding, and grant assurances; master planning and environmental issues that affect airports, aircraft design, and advanced air mobility; travel demand and trends in airline operations; and a variety of other current issues and emerging trends that affect airports broadly.

The results of that literature review informed the topics in the next phase of the research, which was a series of three workshops. These workshops were held with representatives from 14 aviation stakeholders, including airports of varying sizes, airlines, federal and state officials involved with aviation, private companies involved with aviation, and aviation-related associations. The workshops employed strategic futuring methods to identify and shape the vision presented in this report. Workshop participants addressed questions such as the following:

• What does the U.S. airport system need to address by 2050 to best support and maintain a desirable future for air transportation (both passengers and cargo), the environment, and local communities?
• What has to happen to get from 2023 to 2050?
• What assumptions underlie these potential actions, and what could happen if these assumptions fail?

Vision

Through these workshops, the authors developed the following vision statement:

This vision is intentionally ambitious and aspirational. Achieving this vision rests on three elements: operations, sustainability, and integration. The following are brief descriptions of what successful achievement of this vision might look like concerning each element.

Operations

Airports have increased their capacity through changes such as increased digital operations and data sharing with stakeholders. The passenger experience is much improved because of efficiencies, such as off-site security screening and artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled, risk-based screening approaches, along with physical changes to make airports easier to navigate for persons with disabilities. With parking demand greatly reduced, airports have been able to repurpose some space for other uses. Efforts by the aviation community to diversify its workforce, in terms of both skills (e.g., digital skills) and demographics, have created a more diverse cadre of aviation leaders.

Sustainability

Airports have achieved net-zero emissions for those sources that they control, and aviation as a whole has made considerable progress in lowering emissions. As sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) replaced conventional aviation fuels, the industry began transitioning toward non-hydrocarbon-based energy sources. Airports have strengthened their energy resilience, and many have installed microgrids, creating a potential new revenue source. The consequences of climate change—hotter temperatures, stronger storms—have continued to cause operational disruptions, despite investments in hardening infrastructure. Relationships have improved between airports and the communities where they are located.

Integration

Many airports have become more than gateways for air travel. They are deeply integrated into both the broader intercity transportation network and local transportation systems. Travelers can easily book door-to-door trips with a single payment across multiple modes of transportation. Funding sources for airports have become more diverse than ever, with an increase in public–private partnerships. Federal multimodal funding is far more common, and regulations are more flexible.

Actions, Events, and Decisions

Throughout this report, the authors describe the events, actions, and decisions that could lead to the achievement of this ambitious vision. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 of this report are written from the future standpoint of 2050. The future events are hypothetical but are based on workshop discussions with subject-matter experts. The goal of these narratives is not to precisely forecast the future that U.S. airports will experience but rather to inspire airports by envisioning a realistic path to achieving this vision in 2050.

Chapter 5 includes potential near-term actions workshop participants identified as important for achieving this vision. However, the needs and contexts facing airports vary widely; thus, each airport will encounter distinct challenges and opportunities. Achieving this vision depends not only on the actions of airports but also on actions undertaken by many other groups, including airlines (passenger and cargo), aircraft manufacturers, a wide array of service providers, the FAA, and state and local governments. Workshop participants also recognized that many aspects of aviation are ultimately responses to customer demand.