My Airport Area

Airports have multiple spheres of economic development influence, including:

  • The area immediately adjacent to an airport
  • Corridors with easy surface transportation connections to an airport
  • Larger economic regions in which airports support economic activity (sometimes referred to as an aerotropolis)

A diagram illustrating these three levels is found in the tool section. Here we focus on activity that may be attracted to the area immediately around your airport.

Airport locations and local economic needs may be conducive to airport-adjacent economic development. Generally speaking, there are three dynamics affecting airport-adjacent land use and economic development:

  1. Industries that rely heavily on air transportation may choose to cluster near airports to minimize access time and cost, as well as to do business with other airport-reliant businesses. Under this dynamic, airports serve as focal points for new airport-reliant job growth.
  2. Businesses that see opportunities to sell goods and services to the airport, to airport tenants, and to passengers and crew that use airports will locate near the airport.
  3. Depending on their location and land-use context, airports may also serve as focal points for zones of industrial and commercial land uses, including use by companies that do not rely directly on the airport for core economic activities. In this model, the airport area can serve as an outlet or magnet for development types not sustainable in other parts of the region, because of their need for space or general incompatibility with denser area development. In this way, jobs may be maintained within a region that might otherwise leave.

Not all airport-reliant businesses will choose to locate in the area immediately adjacent to an airport. For example, a convention center that relies on aviation to bring in convention attendees may nevertheless choose to locate closer to the center of a city, where urban amenities are readily available to guests. Similarly, a business may rely on aviation for business travel but may prefer to locate further away from the airport in order to be closer to clients, collaborators, or its labor force. In these cases, ground access to the airport becomes particularly important. For an example of the role of airport access in supporting economic development, refer to the TPICS case study of the US Highway 281 connection between downtown San Antonio and the San Antonio International Airport.

As with most economic development, the scale and mix of business activities found in the area around an airport will vary widely from one airport to another. The distinction between the types of development that occur inside and outside of the “airport fence” is not clear-cut. In some cases, airports will serve as landlords, encouraging significant non-aviation business development on land not needed for airport expansion. In other cases, development will be targeted for airport-adjacent land not owned by the airport. For example, a relatively undeveloped airport area may provide manufacturing, logistics, big-box retail, or large-scale office facilities with space and opportunities to expand that are not available in denser, more urbanized parts of a region. Noise and other issues that might make land near an airport unappealing for residential uses and some commercial uses can be attractive to other development activity that is less sensitive to environmental factors, requires large amounts of space, is not compatible with residential communities, or is in need of the access provided by other nearby modal connections.

The pattern of airport area development (to the extent that it materializes) can range from an organic process shaped primarily by market forces to a progression of development predicated on concerted land use planning, infrastructure provision, and the use of business recruiting and incentive programs. Scales and types of development are shaped by a variety of factors beyond the characteristics of an airport. These factors include underlying regional economic trends, land availability and price, parcel assembly, land ownership, tax policies, zoning regulations and allowable density, the availability of development incentives, provision and price of other infrastructure such as sewer, water and electricity, and land-side access.

Resources

Examples:

  • Atlanta Regional Commission’s Website

    An example of airport area planning for the area around Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

  • ACRP Report 121 Innovative Revenue Strategies- An Airport Guide

    Section 8.3, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport – FTZs and Value Capture presents a case study of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport that illustrates how the airport leveraged its standing as an economic center to stimulate non-aeronautical activity on airport property and in the region around the airport.

For additional information on development compatibility around an airport, refer to the sections on Noise, Land Use, and Environmental issues.

Tools

  • Airport Spheres of Influence

    This tool displays a diagram of the relationship of an airport, an airport city, an airport corridor, and an aerotropolis. This tool also provides definitions for an airport city, an airport corridor, and an aerotropolis.