Future-ready airports need next-level connections for growing air traffic
Global demand for air passenger travel is at an all-time high, reaching beyond pre-pandemic levels as passengers travel more often and across longer distances than they have in the past.
Last year, for instance, the total distance traveled by paying passengers, which is measured in revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs), increased by 10.4% from 2023. According to the same data, in most cases, these flights are operating at close to full capacity.
To keep up, airports must work now to expand their capacity and accommodate growing demand from millions of passengers who expect a seamless, secure and reliable experience.
This means the following improvements should be prioritized.
Uninterrupted communication for air traffic control
To ensure safe and efficient flight operations, ground control and aircraft must be able to rely on uninterrupted communication. But recent events show there are improvements to be made in this area.
Case in point: In May 2025, air traffic controllers at the Denver International Airport experienced a brief communication outage that left pilots unable to connect with controllers for more than one minute. While backup systems restored communication, this incident underscores the importance of resilient, integrated networks to prevent disruption.
As airspace becomes more crowded, it’s critical that airports prepare now to handle increasing volumes of air traffic later.
The traditional systems used in many airports rely on multiple communication technologies, including VHF/UHF radios, IP-based communication and legacy voice systems. Integrating these disparate systems to create a seamless, resilient network is difficult. Many of these systems rely on outdated technology, making them more susceptible to failure and inefficiency.
Reliable connectivity for surveillance
Aviation safety relies heavily on real-time surveillance data. It helps teams monitor aircraft movement, prevent collisions and ensure efficient traffic management.
When surveillance systems struggle to provide timely insights that offer comprehensive coverage of the airspace, this can lead to delays, inefficiencies and safety issues.
Systems need to be able to precisely track aircraft position and transmit vital data over a high-performance, resilient network.
Without this data, controllers don’t have precise positioning updates to rely on, making it difficult to guide aircraft safely and leaving pilots to rely on outdated manual procedures to navigate landing sequences.
Accurate navigational and meteorological systems
Modern airports rely heavily on navigational and meteorological systems to provide accurate flight guidance and weather updates to planes and air traffic control centers.
Reliable communication between these critical systems is necessary to facilitate the exchange of essential data, such as wind speed, direction and other atmospheric conditions.
But airports face several challenges in maintaining seamless communication between these systems. When different technologies operate on separate platforms, it can be difficult to synchronize real-time updates. Older airports may also struggle to integrate modern systems with legacy equipment.
Network reliability is also an issue, especially in high-density airspace. While airports may rely on real-time data, network congestion and interference can cause disruptions that delay critical communication.
Without the ability to process real-time weather updates and flight guidance data, controllers have to rely on manual coordination, which could leave pilots with incomplete or delayed information about things like wind speed and approach trajectories.
Precise navigation and aircraft guidance
Navigation aids play a crucial role in guiding aircrafts safely from the runway during takeoff and landing, providing pilots with real-time guidance on positioning, altitude and approach trajectories. Systems like instrument landing systems (ILS) and GPS help maintain precision, especially in low-visibility conditions or congested airspace.
Many airports still rely on outdated systems that struggle to integrate with modern digital navigation tools to support precise navigation and aircraft guidance. Network reliability is also a critical factor. Any communication failure between air traffic control and onboard flight systems can lead to delays or safety issues.
If GPS signals are disrupted, for example, pilots relying on those systems may have to deal with inconsistent or incorrect positioning data that forces traffic controllers to fall back on alternative landing procedures, such as manually guiding aircraft using radar-based navigation.
Built-in redundancy for supreme reliability
In mission-critical environments, incorporating redundancy into the network is key.
One of the biggest risks of not having a redundant network is system failure. When primary communication networks experience an outage, controllers are unable to relay critical instructions to aircraft. These failures can lead to delays, operational inefficiencies and safety concerns.
Outdated infrastructure can make it difficult for airports to handle increasing air traffic demands. Without a robust backup system, even minor disruptions can escalate into widespread operational problems.
For instance, if network failure even temporarily disrupts communication between controllers and aircraft, controllers can’t relay instructions, and pilots must resort to using pre-established protocols and nearby control centers for guidance.
Supporting uninterrupted communication across critical aviation systems
All networks carry information. Some networks carry it exactly the way you want.
Air traffic isn’t slowing down, and with the ever-increasing demand for efficiency and safety, airports need to make sure they collaborate with a partner that can help them connect to what’s possible.
Complete connection solutions from Belden, such as XTran, are designed to provide airports with a robust, scalable and futureproof communication network to support uninterrupted data transmission across critical aviation systems. Running on MPLS-TP-based architecture, it delivers unparalleled network stability and integration. This ensures:
- Precise, real-time transmission of voice and data
- Flawless coordination between air traffic controllers and pilots
- Accurate aircraft alignment and approach trajectories
- Precise monitoring and real-time decision-making
Through TXCare network management, XTran offers simplified monitoring, configuration and scalability so airports can expand their communication infrastructure without adding to complexity.
One of the busiest airports in the world currently uses XTran as the backbone of its communications infrastructure to efficiently handle data transmission between weather sensors, for navigation enabling equipment and to support air traffic control.
Learn more about XTran.