Taking off for a dream landing

As aviation expansion leads to ever bigger and more numerous airports, AMY JONES looks at the impacts and benefits to sky-travelling passengers

- AMY JONES

Huge airport projects are under way across the globe that will transform how and how often we travel. By some metrics, the 2020s is the decade of flight. Although the golden era of aviation - when Concorde flew, planes were carpeted and smoking at 30,000 feet was a normal thing to do - is long behind us, now is the moment of mass air transport.

Each year, more planes are flying to more destinations and carrying greater numbers of people than ever before. Aviation has grown rapidly in scale, capacity and geographic coverage and it doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon.

The numbers are clear. More than 90 million passengers travelled through UK airports between July and September last year alone, making it the busiest summer ever recorded, according to the UK Civil Aviation Authority. Over the year, that figure likely hit 300 million.

Globally, air travel was expected to reach a whopping 9.8 billion passengers in 2025, a 3.7 per cent year-on-year increase, according to the Airports Council International.

Meanwhile, the global passenger count for 2026 is anticipated to shoot up 400 million to hit 10.2 billion. To keep up with demand, 3,593 new routes were launched across multiple airlines in 2024 and 2025, according to ACC Aviation. And more is to come.