Guessing at the Future

Abstract

Rapid change has been, and undoubtedly will continue to be a salient feature of air transport. This characteristic is important for airport planning. It is difficult under the best of circumstances to design a system which can respond to the kind of high growth in traffic that has occurred in air transport. Rapid expansion requires one to plan the design, construction and operation of facilities for conditions that one has neither experienced nor had much time to think about. And airport planning is not carried out in favorable circumstances. Extreme variability in the rate, and frequently even in the nature or location of the growth in air traffic compounds the problems associated with the stress of rapid change.