International air transport has grown at a staggering rate over the last 50 years and the industry which supports it, now bears little resemblance to that which existed even twenty-five years ago. As the number of operators and the size of their respective fleets have increased, so too have the pressures on the infrastructure which support them. Particularly affected are the major airports where runway, apron and terminal capacity are limited. Unlike other elements of the aviation infrastructure, airport capacity is physically constrained and therefore capacity increases can only be obtained through further development or through more efficient uses of existing resources. As the first option is politically controversial and the latter only provides for incremental increases, the air transport industry, through IATA, has developed an allocation mechanism to distribute available capacity based on historic precedence. This thesis reviews the main issues surrounding the current regime. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

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