Airport Updates: Latest News On the Global Market (W/C June 30, 2025)

Bristol Airport (BRS) in England released a master plan that calls for raising its annual passenger cap from 12 million to 15 million passengers by 2040. “A planning application for the necessary infrastructure to achieve this will be submitted to the North Somerset Council later this year,” BRS said. The plan calls for aircraft movements to increase from 85,990 to 100,000 annually. “On a busy day in peak period this would result in 35 extra aircraft movements,” BRS said. “While night flying restrictions would remain, the airport is proposing to increase night flights by 1,000 per year—on average, four per night on a busy night in the peak period.”

South Korea’s Incheon International Airport Corp. (IIAC) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Guayaquil Airport Authority to develop and manage a new airport in the Ecuadorian city. With Guayaquil’s existing José Joaquín de Olmedo International Airport facing capacity constraints, IIAC intends to form a private-public partnership to raise money to build and then operate a new airport with capacity for 7 million annual passengers. Total construction cost is pegged at $360 million. IIAC, which manages Seoul Incheon Airport, has been involved in building and managing airports around the world since 2009 and aims to operate at least 10 airports outside South Korea by 2030. “This partnership represents a significant milestone in IIAC's global expansion strategy, enabling the corporation to extend its overseas business footprint beyond Asia and the Middle East into Latin America for the first time,” IIAC said. IIAC CEO Hag-jae Lee said the “MOU marks a meaningful first step in our efforts to enter the Latin American market.” IIAC is currently providing technical and policy consulting for the planning and development of the new airport's surrounding support infrastructure. The consulting contract is set to expire in October, by which time IIAC aims for the MOU to be turned into a final agreement to manage the new Guayaquil airport’s construction and operation.

Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) signed a $250 million contract with Swedish construction firm Shanksa to build a new automobile parking garage for the airport’s Terminal E. The 725,000-ft.² garage will be multistory and contain 4,000 parking spaces. The project is expected to be completed by 2030.

American Airlines will build a new lounge at Miami International Airport (MIA) as well as upgrading an existing MIA lounge. The new lounge will be the airline’s fourth at the airport. “Once complete, the expansion and upgrades will nearly double the amount of lounge space for American customers traveling through MIA,” the carrier said. “Additional construction details and timing will be revealed at a later date.”

Manchester Airports Group (MAG), which manages UK airports Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands, generated £1.3 billion ($1.8 billion) in revenue for its fiscal year ended March 31, up 8.4% year-over-year. Operating profit was £263.2 million, up 9.8% over the previous fiscal year. “The strong performance was driven by growth at all its airports, with the group serving a combined total of 65 million [annual] passengers for the first time in its history,” MAG said, adding the airports expanded connectivity during the fiscal year. For example, China’s Juneyao Airlines opened service between Manchester and Shanghai, the first time the major Chinese city has been served nonstop from the UK outside of London.