By Chris Wortley, MBA

Why Airport Parking and Mobility Will Be Unrecognizable by 2040

Airports are entering the most significant ground transport disruption since the invention of the private car.

And the uncomfortable truth is this:

Car parks built today will not serve the same purpose for their full design life.  Autonomous mobility is no longer a distant concept.  It is a commercial inevitability — driven by cost curves, fleet economics, urban policy, and the accelerating shift away from private car ownership.

Between 2026 and 2040, the way passengers access airports will change more than it has in the last 40 years.

1. The Autonomous Adoption Curve Is Now a Strategic Planning Horizon

The timeline is clearer than ever.

• 2026–2030: Controlled AV deployment in defined airport zones
• 2030–2035: Fleet based autonomy becomes commercially viable
• 2035–2040: Mobility as a Service overtakes private car use for airport access
• 2040+: Structural decline in private car ownership

This isn’t a technology story.  It’s a behavioural and economic shift that will reshape airport access patterns, land use, and commercial models.  Airports that plan for this shift will capture value.

Airports that don’t will lose it.

2. Parking Revenue Is Exposed — But Mobility Revenue Can Replace It

Parking today is one of the most reliable non aero revenue streams.  In many UK and EU airports, it delivers £5–£8 per passenger.

But unmanaged autonomous adoption could remove 40–70% of that revenue. Not because demand disappears — but because the customer disappears.

AV fleets don’t park. They stage, charge, reposition, and maintain.  This shifts the commercial model from B2C parking to B2B mobility infrastructure.

The airports that understand this early will be the ones that monetize the transition.

3. Car Parks Become Multi Use Mobility Assets

Tomorrow’s “car park” is no longer a place where passengers leave cars.  It becomes a multi use mobility node:

• AV storage hubs
• Peak staging zones
• Fleet maintenance bases
• Local mobility integration nodes
• Real estate redevelopment opportunities

This is not a loss of revenue.  It is a reallocation of land value — from static parking to dynamic mobility operations.

4. The Strategic Imperative for Airport Leaders

The airports that win the next decade will:

• Control the AV ecosystem rather than letting third party fleets dominate
• Shift from “parking” to “mobility” as a core commercial product
• Repurpose early, starting with low yield surface assets
• Integrate mobility into masterplans — not bolt it on later
• Build commercial frameworks for fleet access, staging, charging, and dwell

This is not a technology project.  It is a commercial strategy.

5. The Real Question: Who Owns the Journey When the Passenger No Longer Drives?

When passengers stop driving themselves to airports, the power dynamic shifts.  The key questions become:

• Who controls the fleet staging?
• Who controls the charging?
• Who controls the access rights?
• Who monetizes the land?
• Who owns the customer journey?

Airports that answer these questions now will define the next 20 years of non aero revenue.

6. The Future Is Not “Parking” — It’s Mobility Infrastructure

The shift is already visible in early deployments across the US, Europe, and Asia.  The winners will be the airports that:

• See the disruption early
• Model the revenue transition
• Repurpose land proactively
• Build partnerships with AV operators
• Design infrastructure for fleets, not drivers

The next decade will separate airports that adapt from airports that get disrupted.

About the author: Chris Wortley, MBA, Airport Parking & Mobility Advisor-Thought Leader | Commercial Strategy, Pricing & Future Mobility, chriswortley@outlook.com