Co-Founder
Continuous improvement Specialist, Proven Change Manager, M365 adoption specialist
July 1, 2025
Airports especially those operating on a regional or medium scale are under growing pressure to evolve. Operational costs are rising, margins are narrowing, and the demand for a better, faster, more consistent passenger experience is only increasing.
Airport operating models are often built around rigid structures and siloed systems. They prioritise routine and predictability, a luxury that no longer exists in today’s volatile environment. What’s needed now is not just recovery or marginal gains. It’s a fundamental rethink of how airports function.
A New Model for a New Environment
The Airport Target Operating Model offers a clear and structured response to this challenge. It provides a comprehensive framework that aligns an airport’s strategy with its day to day operations, bringing together people, processes, systems, and governance under a single, integrated model. As integrating operations and working collaboratively as one airport team is the key to unlocking the best possible operational performance and cost effectiveness, whilst ensuring the best possible experience.
Unlike traditional models, an ATOM is designed to be agile. It allows airports to respond more effectively to fluctuating passenger volumes, operational disruptions, and growing regulatory requirements without compromising performance or passenger satisfaction.
For small and mid-sized airports in particular, this approach offers a practical path to improved efficiency and long-term resilience.
While digital transformation is not new to the aviation sector, its potential is still far from fully realised at many regional airports. Legacy IT infrastructure and siloed systems are often significant barriers to progress.
A modern ATOM doesn’t just streamline tasks; it improves decision making, strengthens resource planning, and directly enhances the passenger journey.
The pressures facing today’s airports are unlikely to ease. But with the right structure, systems, and strategy in place, small and mid-sized airports can do more.
Modernising the operating model isn’t a question of when. It’s a matter of how soon.
