Have you ever wondered what happens when an airport has to shut down because of a heatwave, when a runway gets flooded, or when flights get delayed due to extreme winds? These situations are becoming more frequent as climate change accelerates. What once were just hypothetical risks are now real challenges that European aviation must face. To tackle this, two important projects—ALBATROS and AEROPLANE—are stepping in with concrete, coordinated solutions.

A Framework to Understand Airport Vulnerability to Climate Change

ALBATROS (Advanced systems and solutions for better practices against hazards in the aviation system) is an EU-funded research initiative focused on helping airports prepare for the future. The project aims to:

  • Identify physical risks that climate change and emerging technologies like drones or alternative fuels might pose to aviation.

  • Create a specific framework for assessing climate risks at airports.

  • Help airports integrate climate adaptation strategies into their operational and infrastructure plans.

ALBATROS works hand-in-hand with AEROPLANE (Achieving Efficient and Robust Operations in a climate-neutral air transport System), combining their expertise to develop sustainable operational strategies.

The results? They’re now publicly available in a detailed report called Deliverable D2.2 – Analysis of the Impact of Climate Change on Airports in Europe.

Why We Need to Act Now

The data collected by ALBATROS confirms what many have feared: Europe’s airports are already feeling the effects of climate change.

  • Heatwaves are impacting aircraft performance and runway safety,

  • Extreme winds are disrupting flights and causing delays,

  • Heavy rainfall leads to flooding that stresses airport infrastructure.

A study by ACI Europe has flagged these as growing threats. ALBATROS takes this a step further by quantifying these risks with scientific and predictive methods.

Looking Closer: A Study of Five European Airports

To make sure their framework is practical and realistic, the ALBATROS team studied five airports across Europe, each with its own climate challenges:

  • Alicante, Spain – frequent and long-lasting heatwaves

  • Athens, Greece – rising temperatures and summer peaks

  • Rotterdam, Netherlands – strong winds and unusual rainfall

  • Ciampino, Italy – vulnerability to combined events like heat and storms

  • Pantelleria, Italy – geographic isolation and thermal stress

By analyzing such diverse environments, they could test and refine their methods, identifying patterns of vulnerability that could apply to many other airports.

How the Framework Works

The Climate Risk Assessment Framework developed by ALBATROS breaks down into three main steps:

  1. Identifying Climate Hazards
     Heatwaves, windstorms, heavy rain — looking at their frequency, intensity, and seasonality based on historical data and future projections.

  2. Analyzing How These Hazards Affect Airport Assets
     This includes runways, terminals, navigation systems, and air traffic control operations.

  3. Evaluating How Strong and Functional These Assets Are
     Assessing impacts on operations such as delays, disruptions, and costs, including direct and indirect effects on safety and performance.

The goal is a replicable, scalable tool that airports can easily integrate into their decision-making.

Key Findings and What Can Be Done

Here’s what ALBATROS found—and some ideas for how airports can respond:

  • Extreme Temperatures cause runway material degradation and affect takeoff performance.
     Solutions: resilient pavement materials, flight schedule adjustments.

  • Strong Winds create instability during landings and takeoffs and risk ground handling operations.
     Solutions: adapting air traffic control planning, reinforcing lightweight structures.

  • Heavy Rains and Flooding overwhelm drainage systems and hinder passenger and cargo access.
     Solutions: hydraulic redesign, passive water protection measures.

Working Together: ALBATROS and AEROPLANE’s Partnership

These two projects complement each other perfectly. While ALBATROS focuses on risk assessment, AEROPLANE develops adaptive operational strategies. Together, they’ve built a shared database to avoid duplicating efforts and to help integrate their findings into policies and regulations. This collaboration is a great example of teamwork under the Horizon Europe program.

What’s Next?

With the publication of Deliverable D2.2, ALBATROS is calling for action:

  • Invest in climate-resilient infrastructure.

  • Make operational planning flexible, using predictive weather forecasts.

  • Include climate resilience in airport Master Plans and regulations.

The team will continue updating their models with new data and expanding stakeholder engagement to keep solutions relevant and effective.

🔗 Download the full report Deliverable D2.2 here
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