Attractiveness of an airport depends not only on the number of routes offered but also on the airport access infrastructure and airport terminal capacity. The expected passenger growth in 2030+ time horizon is tremendous and it is not only necessary to fly them, but also to get all passengers, meeters and greeters and staff to and from the airports. Quality of airport access, the trip duration and the reliability of the access mode influence the passenger decisions for particular airport selection but also airport arrivals and dwell times in the terminal which can have a dramatic effect on airport operators, their retail models and ultimately their revenue. With respect to the passenger typology it is important to focus also on the low cost carriers segment which will represent 30% of the whole market in 2026 in Europe. The ambition of most European airports is to increase share of public transport in the airport access modes to reduce large environmental footprint resulting from share of drop off 'kiss and fly' traffic with negative impact on the environment and the access road capacity. However, is it possible to increase attractiveness of intermodal transport in the future? What are the preferences of different categories of passengers? Is it possible that dedicated rail services could be attractive also for the price sensitive segment of low cost passengers? Results from research at Prague, Brno and Bratislava airports but also from other sources give answers to these questions.

Airport access, intermodality, environmental footprint