ABSTRACT
Many major airports are already seriously congested. The Boeing Commercial Airplane Group (2004) are also very much in line with other sectors of informed opinion when forecasting that air trafc will grown, on average, at about 3 per cent per annum into the foreseeable future. It is unlikely that runway capacity at airports will increase at this rate, and certainly there will be many facilities where capacity will remain stagnant or grow more slowly. These are often airports where demand is high but, mainly because of environmental constraints, additional runways will not be constructed because of local opposition. There are also few ‘quick-x’ technologies on the horizon, although enhanced air navigation equipment and air trafc control practices are likely to offer some relief. The challenge in these circumstances is to make the best use of the capacity that is available and to stimulate the adoption of efcient management practices.
