BAG warns that the aviation sector’s recovery from Covid-19 poses capital challenges

Covid affected all modes of transport, and the economic recovery that has taken place since then has often changed the landscape. This issue has been examined in detail in road and rail transport, where people travel at different times for different reasons as more flexible work and leisure patterns evolve.

However, aviation was particularly hard hit. In the UK, before 2020, airports were busy and focused on major investment to increase capacity. The pandemic then caused the line to close completely and many projects remained on hold until 2023 as passenger numbers took time to recover.

This now seems to have changed. Thompson, speaking to N.C.E at the NCE Airports conference this month, he explained that “If we look at the full year of 2023, airport numbers are back to 92% of 2019 levels. And now, of course, we’re into 2024 and we’re seeing almost full economic recovery. At Heathrow, for example, the rate is already 104% compared to 2019.”



She explained that, as with other sectors, this recovery involves some pattern changes. “The top winner at the end of 2023 was Bristol. And the reason for this is that leisure has recovered much faster than business. And the reason is pent-up demand. Everyone wanted to go on holiday and during Covid they didn’t get any holiday. Of course, on the business side, we have all become accustomed to using Teams and Zoom for business calls, which has impacted the recovery of business travel.”

This puts capital works back on the agenda. The biggest of these are plans to fully commission Gatwick Airport’s northern runway – at a cost of £2.2 billion – although many airports are struggling to modernise.

Unfortunately, this poses a significant challenge to supply after so many lives have been lost in the industry during the pandemic.

Thompson explained why. “This year we have seen many capital programs that stalled during Covid restart, and we are now seeing a severe shortage of resources in the skills we need to achieve this.”

Solving this problem will require all industries coming together to find solutions, Thomson says. “Cooperation is absolutely key, not only for economic recovery, but also for where we are heading in the future. The future of aviation will change. It’s all about new technology, it’s about transformation, sustainability is a buzzword that’s here to stay and we’ll need to work together across the industry to make this a reality.”



Like what you read? To receive New Civil Engineer’s daily and weekly newsletters, click here.