In 2025, demand grew by 5.3%, and projections for 2026 are expected to exceed 5 billion air passengers worldwide by the end of the year, according to the International Air Transport Association. This means that the post-pandemic demand for air travel has not levelled off. Rather, demand continues to grow, putting pressure on airports and airlines to do more than just accommodate the growing number of travelers in their spaces.
Instead, aviation leaders are considering how they can shape the passenger experience long before they reach the terminal. Right now, JE Dunn’s aviation experts are helping airports plan for three key things: improving customer experience, future-proofing their spaces, and integrating new airport parking technology and transportation options like Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL).
In the last five years, airports have heavily invested in terminal concourse projects to improve customer experience. But as airports continue to grow, the customer experience journey begins much earlier than arrival onto the concourse; it starts at entry into the airport itself. Because of that, airport infrastructure planning has become an even more critical part of the passenger journey.
Sensors that track parking space occupancy are now interfacing with predictive AI modeling, giving airports more tools to model behavior and help direct customers to open spaces in a quick and intuitive manner. Some airports are utilizing this technology to allow customers to reserve parking spaces ahead of time to take anxiety out of having to locate a space at the last minute, offering a premium service for an additional fee. If there is a way to improve passenger experience and reduce stress at the first step of their journey, JE Dunn is prepared to work alongside clients to explore that interface and provide options that support their goals.
Parking garages are a key piece of the airport revenue equation, generating $5-7 billion annually in the United States according to a 2024 Airport Council International report, or roughly 40% of the total non-aeronautical airport earnings. But that revenue source is facing stiff competition from the increase in app-based rideshare usage by passengers. Airports are also increasingly concerned about the cultural shift toward embracing driverless cars, which further jeopardizes the future revenue-generating ability of garage assets. One critical element of airport parking design is developing future-proof design strategies. This should have two distinct paths of consideration:
The first path should address provisions that enable the airport to easily and quickly modify the garage in the future for new emerging technologies.
The second, and more involved path, is to plan for the possible reuse of the garage building for another non-garage usage altogether at some point in the future, should demand reduce significantly. These measures may include structural dead load provisions for the addition of a levelling topping slab as well as increased clear floor heights more typical of offices and other building types.
In March 2026, the FAA granted approval to eight pilot programs to begin testing eVTOL vehicles as part of a three-year initiative spanning 26 states. As airports begin to make plans for future eVTOL implementation, parking garages have been widely seen as the likely choice for landing pads and hold rooms, due in part to their location outside the airport operations area (AOA) and proximity to passenger entry points. In short, the path that travelers will take once they leave their cars may become the path they take when they disembark their eVTOL aircraft in the future. Garage design today needs to consider the eVTOL program of the future. Because these vehicles will likely quick charge via large batteries, the garage design should consider future battery locations and sizes, paths of vertical conduit travel, and live-load considerations for expanded rooftop occupancy loads.
Just as the needs and concerns for our airport clients evolve in response to changing market conditions, our design and construction processes must also evolve to anticipate these issues and to offer innovative solutions to new aviation projects and problems. Now more than ever, JE Dunn is positioned to utilize our partnership, experience, and expertise to help navigate these emerging challenges. Contact us for your next aviation project to learn more.
