Passenger travel habits and expectations have changed significantly over the past two decades. Travelers now spend more time in airport terminals, often carrying additional personal items and expecting higher levels of comfort, convenience, and service. As airports have adopted social media and other real-time feedback tools, terminal restrooms—often the first and last places passengers visit in an airport—have emerged as one of the most consistent factors impacting the passenger experience. The TRB Airp...

When communities are faced with hurricanes, wildfires, and other natural disasters, airports serve critical response and recovery roles by enabling evacuations and the flow of emergency resources, supplies, and personnel. Yet when these same disasters damage airports and disrupt airport operations, response and recovery times in affected communities can be significantly delayed.  This ACRP Impact on Practice highlights how ACRP Report 73: Airport-to-Airport Mutual Aid Programs —and the tools, strat...

U.S. airports that receive assistance from the federal government are required to comply with a number of obligations imposed by federal law. The TRB Airport Cooperative Research Program’s ACRP Legal Research Digest 21: Compilation of DOT and FAA Airport Legal Determinations and Opinion Letters as of December 31, 2023 covers legal matters that include the reasonableness of contractual terms, leasing practices, airport rules and regulations, airport charges imposed on aeronautical users, including airline...

An important operational characteristic of an airport is the length of its longest runway. The longest runway determines the types of aircraft that can use the airport and dictates the operational limitations at the airport. The TRB Airport Cooperative Research Program's ACRP Web-Only Document 54: Development of a Small Aircraft Runway Length Analysis Tool provides a user-friendly computer tool to help airport planners and designers estimate runway length requirements for a variety of aircraft and design...

The increasing need to use airport land for non-aeronautical revenue and decrease operating expenses may generate consideration of on-airport farming operations and agricultural leasing. The TRB Airport Cooperative Research Program's ACRP Synthesis 117: Agricultural Operations on Airport Grounds compiles literature and practices at airports to initiate and manage agricultural operations on airport grounds.

Airports use Noise and Operations Monitoring Systems (NOMSs) to collect, manage, analyze, and communicate data such as flight tracks and procedures, aircraft identification, noise measurements, noise abatement program performance, and weather. NOMSs are also used to respond to community noise complaints and provide stakeholders with information about aircraft activity and noise, thus fostering trust and transparency. The TRB Airport Cooperative Research Program's ACRP Research Report 237: Primer and Fram...

Airports make facilities available for non-commercial purposes, such as for community use by community or nonprofit groups. The TRB Airport Cooperative Research Program's ACRP Synthesis 116: Examples of Facility Space Provided for Community Use at Airports  provides the first body of literature to focus on the use of facilities that airports may provide in order to support local economic and social sustainability.

Design innovation for electrically powered and hybrid-electric aircraft is accelerating rapidly. While there are many potential benefits of electric aircraft and hydrogen technologies, not all air service can be replaced by electrically powered aircraft in the near term. The TRB Airport Cooperative Research Program's ACRP Research Report 236: Preparing Your Airport for Electric Aircraft and Hydrogen Technologies offers an introduction to the emerging electric aircraft industry, gives estimates of potenti...

Airport user surveys have traditionally been used to obtain information for facility planning. More recently, however, surveys are being used to measure satisfaction as a way to identify actions that could improve the customer experience and increase non-aeronautical revenues, particularly those from passenger terminal concessions. The TRB Airport Cooperative Research Program's ACRP Research Report 235: Guidebook for Conducting Airport User Surveys and Other Customer Research provides airport managers a...

The deployment of telecommunication systems, management of networks, and dealings with telecommunication or information service providers, airlines, other tenants, concessionaires, and passengers create multiple legal issues for airport operators. The Airport Cooperative Highway Research Program's ACRP Legal Research Digest 43: Legal Considerations for Telecommunications at Airports examines federal requirements for various aspects of telecommunications at airports, including both current issues and thos...