Airport Cities

Major airports are key nodes for global production and enterprise systems offering them speed, agility, and accessibility. They are also powerful engines for local economic development attracting aviation-linked businesses of all types to their environs. These include, among others, time-sensitive manufacturing and distribution; hotel, entertainment, retail, and exhibition complexes; and office buildings that house regional corporate headquarters and air-travel intensive professionals.

As aviation-oriented businesses cluster around these airports and along transportation corridors radiating from them, a new urban form is emerging — the Aerotropolis — stretching up to 20 miles (25 kilometers) outward from the airports. Similar in shape to the traditional metropolis made up of a central city core and its commuter-linked suburbs, the Aerotropolis consists of an airport city core and outlying corridors and clusters of aviation-linked businesses.

A spatially compressed model of the Aerotropolis based on development features at and around major airports is illustrated below. Zoom In

Although most aerotropolis development to date has been spontaneous and haphazard — spawning congestion and environmental problems — in the future it can markedly improved through strategic infrastructure and urban planning. Dedicated airport expressway links (aerolanes) and high-speed airport express trains (aerotrains) should efficiently connect airports to business and residential clusters, near and far. Special truck-only lanes should be added to airport expressways, as should improved interchanges to reduce congestion. Cluster rather than strip development should be encouraged along airport transportation corridors with sufficient green space between clusters. Residential mixed-use developments for airport area workers and frequent air travelers should be designed to human scale encouraging social interaction and sense of neighborhood. In short, aerotropolis development and "smart growth" should go hand-in-hand.

The above outcomes will not occur under current airport area planning frameworks which are politically localized and functionally fragmented. A new approach is required, bringing together airport planning, urban and regional planning, and business site planning in a synergistic manner so that future aerotropolis development will be economically efficient, aesthetically pleasing, and socially and environmentally sustainable. The real question is not whether aerotropolises will evolve around major airports (they surely will). It's whether they will form and grow in an intelligent manner, minimizing problems and maximizing returns to aerotropolis businesses and residents.

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