In October 2025, an intense nor’easter hit the East Coast for multiple days with coastal flooding and powerful winds, causing over 8,000 flight delays and around 800 cancellations at major airports across the region. This wasn’t an isolated incident. Airports worldwide are experiencing escalating climate-related disruptions that threaten reliability, revenue, and operations.

As critical infrastructure connecting regions and supporting economic activity, airports can’t afford a wait-and-see approach. Climate resilience isn’t just environmental stewardship—it’s fundamental business continuity and risk management.

Understanding climate risks to airport operations

Climate change affects airports through multiple channels. According to a 2020 McKinsey study, rising temperatures alone are projected to impact up to 185,000 passengers annually by 2050 unless infrastructure is improved (roughly 23 times today’s impact). Temperature extremes buckle runways, heavy precipitation requires greater aircraft spacing and reduces throughput, and coastal facilities face sea-level and storm surge like this week’s nor’easter.

Vulnerabilities extend beyond the airfield. Road flooding can prevent staff from commuting to work. Cooling systems can fail under extreme heat, and wildfire smoke reduces visibility and impacts air quality for outdoor airport staff.

The business case for climate-resilient airports

Proactive resilience planning protects revenue and operations while supporting regulatory compliance and competitive positioning. For airports pursuing Airport Carbon Accreditation, resilience efforts align naturally with GHG inventories and Climate Action Plans. 

Measures that address both airport development and climate resilience deliver the greatest benefit. When expansion or renovations are already planned, integrating climate considerations from the beginning is more cost-effective than retrofitting later. Airlines, passengers, and insurers increasingly expect climate preparedness, and airports that invest in resilience will maintain operations while competitors may face more weather-related closures.

Key components of airport climate resilience planning

Effective resilience planning starts with understanding current and future climate exposure, assessing risk, and identifying adaptation measures. Each airport faces unique threats based on geography and operations, requiring tailored climate vulnerability assessments that evaluate which assets face the greatest risk.

Resilience planning succeeds when integrated and aligned across an organization, rather than being treated as a separate initiative. Leading airports embed climate considerations into master planning, capital improvements, and maintenance schedules, ensuring resilience becomes part of institutional decision-making. 

Climate resilience at Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport

Climate resilience planning works best when it’s embedded throughout an organization’s operations and culture. Our six years of working with the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) demonstrate how strategic resilience planning can create lasting momentum across an entire airport system.

Working with the MAC, Verdis Group has applied a Living Systems framework to climate resilience planning. A major benefit of the Living Systems framework is the recognition that effective resilience planning evolves through continuous feedback and engagement. We’ve helped the MAC create new feedback loops by conducting staff surveys, interviews, focus groups, and workshops that ensure resilience strategies reflect real operational knowledge and concerns from across the organization.

In 2022, the MAC updated its 2016 Climate Vulnerability Assessment for Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport (MSP), identifying current and projected climate risks to infrastructure and operations. Building on these findings, the MAC expanded resilience planning in 2023 to include all six of its reliever airports, a critical step in protecting the region’s broader aviation network.

Through direct engagement with reliever airport directors and managers, we helped the MAC develop practical, implementable resilience strategies spanning eight key categories:

• Planning Integration
• Design and Construction
• Business Operations
• Localized Weather Sensing Technologies
• Alignment and Integration with MSP operations
• Training and Staff Capacity
• Public Safety

Taking action on airport resilience

Climate change isn’t a distant threat to airport operations—it’s creating disruptions today that will only intensify without proactive planning. 

The choice facing airport operators is clear: invest in resilience now through strategic planning, targeted infrastructure improvements, and operational adaptations, or pay far more later through repeated disruptions, emergency repairs, and lost revenue. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

We bring specialized expertise in climate resilience planning for airports and critical infrastructure. We understand the unique operational constraints airports face and the regulatory landscape airports navigate, from Airport Carbon Accreditation requirements to FAA compliance. Our climate resilience services integrate seamlessly with GHG inventories, Climate Action Plans, and broader sustainability initiatives. We’re here to help you build a comprehensive, coordinated approach to both climate mitigation and adaptation.

Meet us at ACI-NA and Airports Going Green!

Ready to strengthen your airport’s climate resilience? Contact us to discuss how climate resilience planning services can help you prepare for tomorrow’s climate challenges today. We’ll be attending the 2025 ACI-NA & ACI World Annual Conference and Airports Going Green. Reach out today to schedule a time to chat in person!

Further resources for climate resilience:

• National Academies ACRP Reports. “Assessing Climate Change Vulnerability at Airports: A Primer“ (2024) – A comprehensive starting point for understanding airport climate vulnerability assessment
• World Economic Forum: “5 Steps to Building Climate Resilience into Our Airports“ (2024) – Recent guidance from Airports of Tomorrow initiative