Air Traffic Control Market Expected to Reach $11.50 Billion by 2027

According to a recent report published by Allied Market Research, titled, “Air Traffic Control Market by Airspace, Application, Offering, Airport Size, and Sector: Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020–2027,” the global air traffic control market was valued at $8.41 billion in 2019, and is projected to reach $11.50 billion by 2027, registering a CAGR of 4.1% from 2020 to 2027.

At present, the U.S. dominates the market, followed by Mexico and Canada in North America. However, Canada is expected to grow at a higher CAGR during the forecast period. In addition, in 2019, China led the market in the Asia-Pacific region followed by India, Japan, Australia and rest of Asia-Pacific countries.

Factors such as rise in number of airports, need of better airspace management systems, and increase in number of passengers are driving the air traffic control (ATC) market growth. However, potential risk of cyber threat, and high cost of ATC systems are expected to impede the stated air traffic control market growth. 

Most of the travelers across the globe prefer to travel by air than other conventional modes of transportation such as road, and sea as it is the safest and fastest mode of transportation with fewest cancelled flights. This makes the air travel more reliable than others and also offers comfortable experience during the journey. Though air travel is expensive, customers prefer travelling by air owing to rise in disposable income. 

Further, in accordance with the data released by international civil aviation organization (ICAO), 4.3 billion passengers were carried by airlines in 2018. Moreover, the number of airline passengers is expected to cross 10.0 billion by 2040, which will create the need for additional airports across the globe. This in turn is expected to supplement the growth of the global ATC market.

The air traffic control system at any airport constitutes 20% - 50% of the overall running cost of the airport. In addition, various governments are spending heavily to install air traffic control towers (ATCT) enhance air traffic management. For instance, Delhi IGI Airport is now equipped with the India’s tallest ATC tower with 102 meters of height. This installation is expected to help smoothen the traffic flow at the busiest airport. Further, the total cost of setting up the new ATC tower and its facilities was around $50 million. Therefore, high cost of ATC systems may hinder the growth of the global air traffic control market.

Further, hackers/ attackers can take the advantage of the software vulnerabilities so as to exploit ATC systems, which in turn can result in air traffic fatalities. In addition, in line with the report released by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), the cybersecurity weakness can lead to extreme disruptions and undermine the safety of the nation's ATC system.  Hence, to avoid such cyber-attacks, cyber security in air traffic management (ATM) needs to be prioritized. This requires companies and regulators to focus more on the technological solutions as well as potential applications of artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain to avoid the potential risk of cyber threat. Such potential risk of cyber threat is expected to hamper the growth of the air traffic control market.

Key Findings Of The Study

• By airport size, the medium airport segment generated the highest revenue in 2019.

• By region, LAMEA is anticipated to exhibit the highest CAGR during the forecast period while considering the air traffic control market growth.

• By offerings, the hardware segment dominated the global market in terms of revenue in 2019.

• Middle-East leads the ATC market in the LAMEA region.

The key players profiled in the air traffic control market share include Adacel Technologies Limited, BAE Systems, Frequentis AG, Indra Sistemas SA, Leonardo S.p.A, Northrop Grumman Corporation, Raytheon Technologies Corporation, Saab AB, SkySoft-ATM, and Thales Group.