How major airport operators can balance passenger experience and innovation

Developing a major airport is, in many ways, a contradiction. You're operating live, high-pressure assets while trying to rebuild, improve and expand facilities and service levels. The schedule doesn't stop. Levels of service don't pause. And yet the infrastructure that serves them needs to keep pace with growing demand, tightening regulations and a rapidly shifting technology landscape.

The question isn't whether to modernise major airports. It's how to do so with minimal disruption, while also realising incremental benefits during implementation for best passenger experience. 

The refurbish vs. rebuild dilemma 

Every airport development eventually confronts the same decision: do you upgrade what's there or start fresh? 

It's rarely straightforward. Technical feasibility matters, but so do costs, capacity and practicality. An asset might have years of life in it, but if it can't accommodate the footprint of new security equipment, or if it lacks the vertical circulation capacity needed for modern operations, refurbishment may deliver a compromise rather than a solution.  

“Equally, a full rebuild requires somewhere to serve customers in the meantime.”   

In reality, both paths carry risks. Refurbishment and/or reconfiguration typically means reduced capacity during implementation, potentially longer queues, disrupted retail and food and beverage operations and an impaired customer experience. This reflects in negative feedback on passenger experience and the potential for compensation claims if levels of service are not achieved.  

“Rebuilding offers a clean slate, but only if you can secure sufficient stand-in capacity to maintain operational continuity.” 

It’s also capital‑intensive, with budgets needing to accommodate the main works and the short‑term  temporary facilities required to keep the airport functioning throughout the transition. 

Where possible, the recommended approach is to provide new capacity first, then decommission and reconfigure the existing asset. This protects the levels of service throughout the programme and reduces potential operational and commercial disruption. 

Starting as you mean to go on 

One of the key differences between programmes that run well and those that don't comes down to how early the critical conversations start, regardless of whether you are talking about refurbish or rebuild.

Major programme ways of working, the kind associated with other Critical National Infrastructure (CNI), should be embedded from the outset, not applied retrospectively into a distressed programme.  

That means integrating cost, schedule, risk and procurement into a single, coherent process at the outset, commencing with the end in mind, considering both capital and operational expenditure together. It also means ensuring workstreams are developed concurrently rather than consecutively and scheduled in an interface and interdependency matrix. 

“This further requires honesty about delivery capability.” 

What can be done in-house? What needs to come from the specialist supply chain? What frameworks or integrated delivery partners are needed and when do they need to be in place?  

Failure to assess requirements and resources adequately at the appropriate times can lead to either overloaded supply chain partners or internal teams stretched beyond capacity at critical moments. 

Translating a masterplan into a programme for airport requires structure. Benefits and outcomes need to be defined clearly, the functional and operational requirements must be set out and the business cases established. This is to anchor individual projects throughout design, development, implementation, operator training, commissioning, Operational Readiness and Airport Transfer (ORAT) and handover.  

Requirements should be tracked continuously from masterplan inception through to project hand-over, with interfaces between projects and external influences clearly mapped in a Responsible-Accountable-Consulted-Informed (RACI) matrix. 

The case for collaboration across projects and portfolios 

When multiple reconfiguration and new capacity initiatives run simultaneously, the temptation is to manage each in isolation. This is where programmes can lose momentum. 

Centralising key capabilities at programme level, rather than duplicating them across projects, reduces competition for scarce resources. It helps manage how different project teams approach the same supply chain partners, especially when the pool is small.  

“This avoids overloading the market and driving up costs. It facilitates continuous engagement with key stakeholders and a coherent approach to resilience, contract requirements and regulatory compliance.”

There are practical benefits too. Standardised design approaches mean multi-discipline teams aren't repeatedly addressing the same challenges. Centralised data management, using BIM or GIS applications and shared libraries, facilitates consistent reporting and seamlessly interfaces with asset management systems.  

Implementing BIM for facility and asset data management alone is said to reduce the time spent locating facility information and assets by 83 percent. And where legacy assets are being replaced across multiple projects, there's a real opportunity to simplify operations and maintenance through the deployment of standardised equipment and Operation and Maintenance (O&M) strategies. 

Throughout all of this, the level of service strategy needs to move beyond monitoring and become actively managed. Planning and phasing should aim to deliver measurable, consistent, incremental benefits at each stage, maintaining agreed level of service criteria even as the wider programme evolves. 

Investing for the next decade 

Decisions being made now will influence how airports operate through the 2030s and beyond. That makes the choice of where to invest particularly consequential. 

Data foundations are a clear priority. Standardising data from design stage, across BIM, work breakdown structures and cost breakdowns, creates the foundation for asset management, digital twin applications and, eventually, AI-driven operational optimisation. 

Airports that build this capability now can expect to see lower operating costs, reduced resource demand, better asset information and optimised spare parts inventories. They’ll also be better placed to adopt emerging technology in the future. 

“Modularity in power also matters.“ 

Power systems in particular are changing fast as airports integrate renewable energy and explore their potential as regional energy hubs. These systems often need upgrades long before the buildings around them do.  

Designing in flexibility from the start avoids costly and disruptive retrofits later. This means safeguarding space for new systems, easy cable access and capacity for future devices. It's the only way to enable the future of green energy at airports without major disinvestment.  

When it comes to net zero 2050, supply chain partners need to be involved in strategic reviews, not consulted after the event. Carbon visibility across programmes, audit trails and clear sustainability targets must be embedded in procurement scopes to support achievement of sustainability commitments, including PAS 2080:2023.  

The Airports Council International's guidance on decarbonisation and the IATA Airport Development Reference Manual both point to the same conclusion: sustainability planning needs to be integrated into infrastructure strategy, not introduced retrospectively. 

Getting the balance right 

There’s no single formula that makes modernisation of operational airport facilities easy, but there are ways of addressing the challenges which make reconfiguration and expansion manageable for best passenger experience.  

These include: embed programme thinking at commencement, sequence works to protect capacity and service levels, collaborate across project interfaces, invest in compiling data and factor infrastructure flexibility into every decision.   

Additionally, the strategy will inevitably involve operational and maintenance resource planning to support the transition process through ORAT and beyond.   

The airports that get this right won't just deliver better facilities and systems. They’ll deliver a better customer experience, a more resilient operation and an enduring legacy for future generations.