ACI World airport capacity warnings have told governments to treat capacity as a national infrastructure priority, with director general Justin Erbacci warning the industry needs “more than USD 4 trillion by 2055” just to keep pace with growth already coming its way. The call was made at the ACI-LAC/World Annual General Assembly, Conference and Exhibition in Lima, running from 25 to 29 September 2026 and hosted by Lima Airport, where slot policy and market access sat alongside infrastructure and digital transformation on the agenda for more than 600 delegates from over 60 countries.
For an airport director watching a capital plan slip against a rising traffic curve, the message is blunt: capacity is a financing and regulatory problem years before it is a construction problem. ACI World’s own data put global traffic at a record 9.8bn passengers in 2025, and the $4trn figure is what the association says is needed globally by 2055 to accommodate the growth built into that trajectory. Erbacci was explicit that new steel and concrete will not solve this alone.
“Capacity creation means getting more from existing infrastructure, working as one system with airlines and air navigation service providers, and creating policy so that infrastructure can deliver its full benefits,” Erbacci said, framing the ask as much about coordination as construction. Slots sit at the centre of that argument. Following a white paper released earlier in September 2026, ACI World is now taking the case directly to national governments and regulators, arguing that slot allocation has moved from a technical scheduling exercise to a strategic decision that shapes which routes, airlines and regions get access to scarce runway and terminal capacity.
The financing point is where ACI World’s ask gets specific. Erbacci said regulators cannot expect airports to expand capacity while constraining how they pay for it: “We cannot ask airports to expand capacity while limiting their ability to finance it. The equation simply does not work.” That is a direct pitch to finance ministries to weigh the wider economic value of connectivity, not just the aeronautical revenue an airport generates on its own balance sheet.
Who this actually helps
The airports best placed to benefit are the ones already running capital programmes and needing government cover to keep financing terms stable, such as the phased expansion under way at Jeddah’s $31bn KAIA programme or the doubled capital spend behind Philadelphia’s $2bn plan. A clearer, more stable slot and regulatory framework strengthens the case these operators make to lenders and equity partners when a programme is mid-build. It does less for airports where the constraint is political rather than regulatory, since ACI World has no power to compel a finance ministry to act on its advice.
For airports not yet capacity-constrained, the practical takeaway is to get ahead of the slot conversation now: review how allocation and market-access rules would hold up under a growth scenario before traffic forces the issue, and use ACI World’s white paper as the reference point when briefing a board or a transport ministry on why regulatory certainty, not just capital, is the thing to lobby for next.
