Creating blueprints for the future

The most recent Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) aviation forecast predicts modest annual growth in passenger traffic at US airports over the next 20 years.

The FAA Aerospace Forecast 2010-30 records that around 704 million international and domestic travellers used airports in the National Airspace System (NAS) during the global recession in 2009. The FAA forecasts this total will rise year by year to 1.21 billion by 2030 – the 2.5 per cent average annual increase being a rather less optimistic scenario than its previous prediction of 1 billion passengers by 2015. Flight volumes will grow at an average annual rate of 1.5 per cent over 2010-30.

If the forecast is accurate, the modest increases might force the US civil aviation sector to add capacity in a more judicious fashion over the next 20 years. However, even a slow and steady increase would strain capacity-limited airports in the US, particularly in already congested major metropolitan areas.

The FAA forecast predicts that 29 large hub airports will handle most of the increased demand, growing at an average of 3 per cent per year in aircraft movements up to 2030. Some of these large US airports have suffered from infrastructure under-investment and require modernisation to meet future demand.

In this context, architects, engineering practices and construction consultancies will continue to play a prominent role in expansion projects at ímajor US hubs.