Title: ACI’s Airport Economics Report is a benchmark for measuring the industry performance in post-COVID recovery

Language: English

Type: Website

Nature: Website

Published: May 14, 2021


Region: Global

Country: Global / Non-Specific

Sector: Transportation

Keywords: Innovative Revenues for Infrastructure, Airport

Document Link(s):


Document Summary:

ACI has always represented the interests of the industry in an evidence-based manner, and, from the creation of ACI World more than 30 years ago to today, several recurrent data collection efforts have been of fundamental importance in this effort.


Document Details:

The key performance highlights of the airport industry before the COVID-19 crisis are as follows:

  • Global industry revenue year-over-year growth (2019/2018): 1.4%
  • Global industry revenue: US$180.9 billion
  • Revenue per passenger year-over-year growth (2019/2018): –1.1%
  • Distribution of global revenues: aeronautical (54%), non-aeronautical (40.2%) and non-operating (5.7%)
  • Global airport revenue per passenger: US$18.49
  • Global aeronautical revenue per passenger: US$9.99
  • Global non-aeronautical revenue per passenger: US$7.44
  • Total cost per passenger: US$14.11
  • Ratio of aircraft-related to passenger-related charges: 37:63
  • Distribution of non-aeronautical revenue by key source: retail concessions (26.4%), car parking (20.9%) and property and real estate income or rent (15.2%)
  • Operating expenses to capital costs ratio: 65.4% to 34.6%
  • Largest operating expense categories: personnel expenses (34.5%) and contracted services (26%) – the combination of labor costs gives 60% in the operating expenses structure.
  • Global debt-to-EBITDA ratio: 4.39
  • Global return on invested capital (ROIC): 6.6%

As airport competition has intensified, aeronautical revenue generated from airport charges per passenger remained stable, increasing at the same pace as global air transport demand which is a clear demonstration that the calls for tighter and rigid economic regulation of airport charges are unfounded.


Updated: August 8, 2023