Canada’s pension plans have long been global leaders in infrastructure investing. As air travel continues to recover from the COVID‑19 disruption, with Canadian passenger volumes now approaching pre‑pandemic levels, and long-term infrastructure needs continue to grow, airports are attracting renewed institutional attention, not just as transport hubs, but as diversified infrastructure platforms supported by a broad ecosystem of essential services.
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– Ken Luce, |
Airports sit at the intersection of passenger demand, trade, and long duration infrastructure investment. While terminals and runways are the most visible assets, much of an airport’s resilience and long-term value creation increasingly comes from activities beyond the gate.
The scale of the opportunity
Source: ACI World / ICAO (2025 Global Passenger Outlook); Statistics Canada (Airport Activity 2023; Trusteed Pension Funds Q4 2024); McKinsey & Company (The Infrastructure Moment, 2025)
Airports as diversified infrastructure platforms
While passenger volumes can reflect broader economic cycles, airport revenues are far from one-dimensional. In many cases, non-aeronautical revenues, including retail, parking, property, logistics, hotels, digital services and, increasingly, energy infrastructure, represent a substantial and growing share of cash flows. This diversification can help smooth volatility and generate long duration, contract backed income streams that align well with the objectives of pension investors.
As Ken Luce, executive director, Canada at IFM Investors, observes:
“We believe, what makes airports compelling for long-term investors today is not just travel demand, but the breadth of resilient, non-aeronautical activities that support how airports operate and grow.”
What a global airport portfolio reveals
For investors with deep, global experience, these themes are not new. As a pension‑fund‑owned infrastructure investor, established by Australian pension funds, IFM has experience across a network of 17 airports worldwide, spanning a range of regulatory environments, traffic profiles, and operating models. That scale provides pattern recognition across the full airport ecosystem, from how essential services are outsourced, to how decarbonisation initiatives are being implemented, and how specialist operators are becoming increasingly embedded in day-to-day airport operations.
Drawing on more than 30 years of infrastructure investing, IFM’s exposure to airports has helped build insight into where operational complexity is increasing, where capital requirements are emerging, and how essential services evolve as airports modernise and expand.
Beyond terminals and runways – where value is emerging
Many airport-adjacent businesses, such as fuel services, ground handling, equipment leasing and maintenance, share infrastructure characteristics but operate at an earlier stage of maturity. They are often underpinned by long-term commercial arrangements, yet frequently remain subscale or founder led.
For experienced infrastructure investors, this creates opportunities higher up the return curve. Applying institutional disciplines, including governance, procurement scale, systems and more optimal capital structures, can support these businesses’ transition into more resilient, de-risked infrastructure platforms.
“With patient capital and sector expertise, investors can help essential airport businesses scale responsibly, strengthening the infrastructure airports rely on,” Luce noted.
A Canadian moment, on a long-term horizon
Against this backdrop, Canada is increasingly engaged in global discussions about how long-term pension capital can support essential infrastructure. Recent collaboration between Canadian and Australian pension investors highlights growing interest in creating stable, investable environments over time.
While any evolution in Canada’s airport investment landscape will take time, the direction of travel underscores institutional interest not only in airports themselves, but in the businesses that sit behind them, and the long-term role they can play in pension portfolios.
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