Abstract
- The world’s ‘second’ metropolis airports rely among the many most utilized by passengers, with as much as 50mppa, however within the wider scheme of issues they nonetheless lag behind the principal hub airports.
- Main the pack are New York, London, Paris, London, and the Chinese language airports at Shanghai and Beijing.
- Their quantity will probably be augmented inside a couple of years by new ones in India, the Philippines and Australia, amongst different nations.
- There are discernible similarities between them, constructive and destructive, particularly the place funds journey is worried, each quick and lengthy haul.
- Consequently, there are alternatives for synergies to be discovered and enhanced, even for direct co-operation between them.
- That may be less complicated the place they’re independently owned and operated, separate from the principal airport – and fairly a couple of are.
How vital are secondary airports serving large cities within the general scheme of issues?
The target of this report is to take a look at a grouping of the highest ‘second airports’ worldwide and to analyse the position they play inside their very own area.
Are there any commonalities, or synergies? Would any diploma of co-operation between them be useful?
Half one among this report featured the introduction and checked out Newark Liberty, Shanghai Hongqiao and London Gatwick airports; half two checked out Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen, Tokyo Narita, Beijing Daxing and Paris Orly airports.
Half three now will take a look at Bangkok Don Mueang, Seoul Gimpo, and São Paulo Congonhas airports, in addition to sharing some concluding views.
Don Mueang Worldwide Airport is operated by Airports of Thailand.
It was, earlier than the 2006 opening of Suvarnabhumi Airport, the principal airport serving Bangkok, at which stage it was downgraded as a business facility and continued to be a army base and upkeep facility – earlier than being reinstated first as a home airport after which for worldwide providers when Suvarnabhumi was overwhelmed by demand.
Don Mueang is the 77th largest airport globally by seat capability, 87th by frequencies, and 126th for cargo payload.
Because the chart beneath exhibits, passenger site visitors then multiplied dramatically from 2013, when it tripled in comparison with the earlier 12 months. It rose from 2.5 million in 2009 to 41.3 million in 2019, or +1650%, which is probably the most important enhance ever recorded by an airport over a decade.
Don Mueang remains to be primarily a home airport (60% of capability); 95% of its capability is on funds airways, and 85% is on unaligned airways. It presents itself as a self-contained low price facility, with extra in frequent with Stansted Airport (the third one serving London) than with Gatwick.
The route map for Don Mueang exhibits its worldwide deal with Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. The subcontinent is the supply of a lot of Thailand’s vacationer commerce, which is recovering from a extreme COVID pandemic-related downturn.
Whereas most building is at, or scheduled for, the Suvarnabhumi airport, a brand new Terminal 3 at Don Mueang must be accomplished by 2029. It’s going to increase capability to 40mppa.
An airport that after appeared to haven’t any business future in any respect is now the eighth busiest second metropolis airport on this planet, which carries a message for any airport authority contemplating closing down this kind of facility.
Though Seoul’s secondary airport carries the cachet of being ‘worldwide’, solely 21% of its capability is on worldwide routes.
Gimpo is the 139th rating airport by seat capability, 161st for frequencies, and 102nd by cargo payload.
As with Don Mueang in Bangkok, Gimpo was the previous nationwide gateway earlier than the opening of Incheon Airport in 2001. In Gimpo’s case it was retained as a business facility with a home focus, and it has justified that call.
It’s situated near, and to the west of, downtown Seoul. Incheon Airport is 25km additional west, and it’s operated by Korea Airports Company (KAC), so it’s in competitors with Incheon.
KAC operates 14 airports in Korea.
Gimpo has an awesome diploma of equilibrium between airways when it comes to capability and actions, with Asiana Airways and Korean Air being the 2 largest airways by capability.
At Gimpo 56% of capability is on full service carriers and 44% on LCCs, however solely 20% is on unaligned airways, with 5 alliances represented there.
There was constant site visitors progress all through the last decade 2009-2019, aside from a really small decline in 2018 and solely a small decline skilled (-31%) in 2020, which was retrieved in 2021.
Then the 2018 degree was achieved once more in 2022. There was then a small decline (-4.5%) in 2023, which started to be recovered in 2024.
So, one thing of a staccato progress place lately, however earlier than that the expansion degree was secure.
The route map for the airport beneath demonstrates the constraints of the community at current.
Environment friendly rail providers in a bodily small nation take away the necessity for a excessive diploma of home air connectivity, however Gimpo is instantly related internationally to 4 main cities – Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai and Taipei – and within the Chinese language circumstances plus Taipei, to the second airports there (Daxing, Hongqiao, and Taipei Shonsan).
These are main enterprise routes, and enterprise travellers will all the time go for airports nearer to the town centre.
A brand new terminal, aimed primarily at low price passengers, is scheduled to be accomplished in 2025, a part of a bundle of measures costing over USD850 million.
São Paulo Congonhas Airport (CGH) – native comfort vs. capability crunch
Like its counterpart, the Santos Dumont airport in Rio de Janeiro, Congonhas is a domestic-only airport, serving the most important metropolis in Brazil and in Latin America.
The airport misplaced its worldwide working licence in 2008, a 12 months after a deadly accident involving a TAM Airways flight.
The airport is situated 8km (5 miles) from São Paulo’s Central Enterprise District and once more is favoured for regional enterprise site visitors over the bigger (however extra distant) Guarulhos Airport.
The distinction between the 2 is that, in the end, in Oct-2023, Congonhas was formally privatised by means of one of many final concession tranches in Brazil. The primary of those was approach again in 2012, with Spain’s AENA turning into the concessionaire for 30 years and taking on from the state operator Infraero. (Santos Dumont awaits its flip after the change of presidency and the return of President ‘Lula’ da Silva, and stays – for now no less than – with Infraero).
There may be additionally a 3rd airport within the scene within the huge São Paulo area – specifically Campinas Viracopos to the north – however it’s undeniably Congonhas that counts because the ‘second’ one, as near the centre as it’s attainable to get and surrounded by residential and business properties.
Congonhas is the world’s 99th largest airport by seat capability, 91st by frequencies, and 151st by cargo payload.
Congonhas is capacity-constrained, however continues to develop slowly, recording its highest-ever passenger site visitors complete: simply over 22 million in 2023, and after Brazil had taken a pounding from the COVID-19 pandemic.
As could be anticipated, all three of the foremost airways working in Brazil – GOL, LATAM and Azul – service Congonhas, however along with the a lot smaller Voepass, they’re the one ones.
So low price carriers predominate – however solely simply (56% capability share), and there are not any aligned airways in any respect.
Once more, this presents an image of a extremely centered airport for such an enormous metropolis, and the route map beneath confirms that.
Worldwide administration by the operator with the world’s largest community doesn’t seem to have influenced any adjustments thus far in the previous few months, no less than, however Congonhas is proscribed by: having two runways of lower than 2,000m and 1,500m respectively; slot restrictions; working time restrictions; and, as talked about earlier, a really small envelope of land to play with.
The final renovations had been made prematurely of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. AENA Brasil introduced in Oct-2023 that it might make investments BRL2 billion (USD401.1 million) at Congonhas Airport over its 30-year concession time period. Deliberate works embrace building of a brand new passenger terminal and apron growth.
There are extra secondary metropolis airports to return quickly, and in main cities
Different second metropolis airports that didn’t fairly make the lower into this record embrace Moscow Domodedovo, which has a personal possession factor; Chicago Halfway Airport, closely influenced by Southwest Airways, and the topic of two privatisation makes an attempt in 2009 and 2013; and the aforementioned Rio de Janeiro Santos Dumont Airport, simply concerning the last remaining main asset for Infraero, and one that’s being downgraded by the federal government in its route improvement in favour of the worldwide, extra prestigious however really smaller, Galeão–Antonio Carlos Jobim airport.
There are extra of those airports to return.
Between 2024 and 2026 such secondary metropolis airports ought to open in Delhi and Mumbai in India, and in Sydney, with one other to comply with later in Poland – though in that case the prevailing Warsaw airport might shut.
In Manila within the Philippines in time there will probably be one other two of them, making three in complete, all privately owned or managed (and 4 if Clark Worldwide is included), which can cloud the image to say the least.
What similarities and synergies exist?
So, are there any similarities between these airports; any synergies which could even result in cooperation between them?
In lots of circumstances there’s the shortage of a dominant airline. Nationwide ‘flag carriers’ are likely to congregate providers on the main one, and much more so because the COVID-19 pandemic, the place the target was to include prices – however these airways haven’t but all the time resumed regular service on the second airport.
That aside, there tends to be no less than a predominance of quick haul low price capability and more and more, of lengthy haul low price too.
That implies that these airports are in a position to function check beds for cutting-edge transit preparations for these passenger who more and more ‘self-connect’.
In an identical method, they will act as check beds for the arrival point-to-gate (or gate-to-exit level) improvement of biometric know-how, as a result of the kind of journey by means of this sort of airport will be completely different from that of the designated worldwide ‘hub’ airport – which is often the first one.
These secondary airports additionally appear to be much less accessible in some circumstances by public transport. That has been the case at Paris Orly for instance, additionally at Sabiha Gökçen Worldwide Airport, and arguably at New York Newark.
In distinction, Don Mueang is a part of a scheme to attach it, the Suvarnabhumi airport, the downtown Bangkok most important rail station and the U-Tapao–Rayong–Pattaya Worldwide Airport about 100km to the south, all with a high-speed rail line.
This quick report has solely touched briefly on the problems affecting secondary massive metropolis airports, and a extra in-depth one is named for.
