Passenger air travel is at an all-time high, and airports are investing in the infrastructure needed to meet demand. This report contains a comprehensive review of the role of the federal government in airport infrastructure funding and financing.

TRB Special Report 215: Measuring Airport Landside Capacity reviews existing capacity assessment techniques and recommend guidelines that can be used by airport operators, planners, and others who must measure airport landside capacity. Congestion at airport terminal buildings, access roads, and parking areas increasingly threatens the capability of airports to serve additional passengers and air cargo. Measuring the capacity of these airport landside facilities and services is becoming critical. No generally accepted standards exist for gauging the level of service provided by landside facilities and their operations. This report concludes that current knowledge about the performance of various airport landside components is inadequate to support airport landside service standards at this time. Instead, the report recommends a process for measuring airport landside capacity that takes an important first step toward developing such standards.