10 Airport Design and Operation
design standards and 21% on adding capacity. Three airports will get capacity-enhancing
runways: Seattle, Washington Dulles and Chicago O’Hare, joining 12 airports that have had new
runways since 1999. In addition, there will be one additional and one replacement airport. This
will still leave New York, Los Angeles and Chicago short of capacity [114].
These existing and new airports will have to cope with the traffic in 30 and 40 years time. Yet it is
not possible to foresee the changes that may occur in management and technology by then. There
may be new types of supersonic aircraft. The growing Pacific Basin seems to be the most suitable
area from that point of view. With a capacity greater than 200 passengers and flight range over
12 000 km, a supersonic transport would allow a considerable saving of time for passengers and
contribute to a dynamic economic growth in the Pacific area, if the high altitude global warming
problems can be solved. Its introduction would have a major impact on the airport infrastructure.
So too would a 1 000 seat blended wing-body aircraft.