Airport Modernization

Report Outline
Thickening of Traffic at Air Terminals
System of Airports in United States
Proposals for Improving the System
Special Focus

Thickening of Traffic at Air Terminals

Americans in ever-increasing numbers are taking to the airways on scheduled airliners, private business planes, and pleasure and training craft. The rapid growth of air passenger travel has placed heavy strain on ground and terminal facilities and dangerously increased congestion in the air over major cities. Alan S. Boyd, former chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board who has been named Secretary of the new Department of Transportation, told the Senate Commerce Committee on Jan. 11 that the country was “approaching a crisis stage” in the problem of airport congestion. Boyd added that he expected the administration to develop a major program to deal with the effects of this mounting accumulation of air traffic.

Continuing Increase in All Kinds of Air Traffic

Preliminary figures for 1966, compiled by the Air Transport Association, show that the number of passengers carried by trunk and local airlines last year topped 100 million for the first time. The total reached 110 million, 16 per cent above the 1965 mark. Revenue passenger-miles of scheduled carriers rose to 80 billion, 16.5 per cent over the previous year. Furthermore, cargo ton-miles for the scheduled carriers increased 29 per cent.

Increased passenger travel, for all segments of the airline industry, is illustrated by the table on the next page. In the decade from 1955–1965, the number of passengers carried by scheduled airlines more than doubled. The rate of increase rose sharply after 1962. The average annual growth rate from 1957 to 1962 was 7 per cent, but since the latter year the rate has averaged more than 16 per cent. Both the industry and the federal government expect this phenomenal growth to continue. Projections issued by the Federal Aviation Agency In December 1965 indicated that by fiscal 1971 “United States airlines [would] fly a total of 113 billion revenue passenger-miles and nearly 160 million passengers in scheduled domestic and international service.” Some industry observers think the F.A.A. forecast understated the situation. The number of passengers actually carried in 1966 exceeded the 1965 forecast by 2.3 million, and the revenue passenger-miles by 8 million.