This document discusses the concept of an "aerotropolis", where airports become the center of large-scale commercial and economic development, rather than just transportation hubs. It notes that global air travel and cargo are projected to greatly increase in coming decades, leading airports to develop extensive commercial areas that function as regional economic centers. The document examines examples of major airports that have catalyzed nearby office, hotel, manufacturing and mixed-use developments. It argues that Asia is well-positioned to implement the aerotropolis model due to many new airports and high economic growth rates. Planning principles are outlined for holistically developing airport cities that maximize regional competitiveness.

1. Aerotropolis:
Are airport cities the wave of the future?
by Steve Richards
Aurecon “Thinking Transportation” Conference
Jakarta, 28 April 2015

2. What, if instead of airports being
perceived to only be this…
Congested Noisy
Smoggy
2
Crowded
Noisy

3. And also this…
Adestination
A conduit
FacilitatorofGrowth

4. How can they be those things?
The aviation industry has changed, driven by……
Global Air Transport – 1950 to 2012
 Between 2010 and 2030, world-wide
commercial passenger traffic will likely
increase from 4.9 billion to 13.3 billion
 Over one-third of the value of world
trade already moves by air
 In the same period, world air freight is
expected to more than triple
 Almost all high-tech supply chains are
connected by air cargo

5. Leading to the growth ofAerotropolis
….and as a result of that we are seeing:
• rapid commercial development around
many major airports
• airports developing a “brand image”
attracting non-airport linked businesses
Airports have become regional
economic accelerators:
• Providing accessibility, speed and agility
to global supply chains
• Connecting business people to their
customers
• Serving commercial needs of millions of
air passengers and airport-area visitors
annually
• Have become significant employment,
shopping, trading and business
destinations in their own right

6. Achange in mindset/thinking…
happening now
So, with Aerotropolis instead of thinking about a “city airport” we
can change our mindset to be more integrated and development
focused and say an “airport city”
….could we do the same for other infrastructure, say port
development?

7.  JV between developer,
Frankfurt Airport and German
Government
 Direct access to rail, road and
air
 Largest office building in
Germany
 Retail, 2 Hilton hotels,
European h/o KPMG,
Lufthansa h/o, training and
conference facilities, day-care
centre
 7,000 permanent employees
and 3,000 visitors every day.
The Squaire
Frankfurt International Airport
What areAirport around the world
doing?
Commercial Development

8.  More A-Class office space than
downtown Washington
 Second largest retail precinct in the
US (after Manhattan)
 Fastest growing ICT manufacturing
are in the US
 But all along the corridor
 Airport has now taken an interest in
the string development along this
corridor
Washington Dulles Airport
What areAirport around the world
doing?
Commercial Corridors

9.  Until 2010 the busiest cargo
airport in the World
 FedEx directly employs 31,500
people in the Memphis area
 Memphis has attracted
international distribution centres
for Hewlett Packard, Nike, Sharp
in Memphis
Fedex
Memphis International Airport
What areAirport around the world
doing?
Courier Services

10.  Within 750m of airport fence
 Children’s Hospital, Women’s Hospital, 466 bed Acute Care Facility, Laboratory
Services
 Delivered 3 700 babies last year
Sacred Heart Facility - Pensacola International Airport
What areAirport around the world
doing?
Medical Facilities

11. What areAirport around the world
doing?
Hotels and Conference Venues
 Fourth busiest airport in
the World
 Hotel has 13 000m2 of
function space with 90
meetings rooms
 Distance education
facility
Hyatt Regency / Grand
Hyatt
Dallas/ Fort Worth
International Airport

12.  61 000 people employed at the airport
 Close to 200 000 employed within 6km
 Zuidas 5km from airport fence – 2.5 M m2, 43% commercial/15% industrial/42% residential
 Business represented - Aalsmeer Flower Auction, ABN AMRO, ING, Menzies
Zuidas - Schiphol International Airport
What areAirport around the world
doing?
Regional Mixed Development

13.  Surf & Style European Surfing Championships since 2011
Munich International Airport
What areAirport around the world
doing?
Leisure Activities

14.  $1B market by 2025, 24 spaceports
Spaceport America
 $209M Norman Foster facility
 Home of Virgin Galactic
Curacao Spaceport America (New Mexico)
What areAirport around the world
doing?
Spaceports
Curacao
 On Hato Airport 3.5km runway
 Well-established tourism industry

15. How to do anAerotropolis Solution…
The Process
 Organize the aerotropolis
development around a clear
vision
 The vision guides the
development of a set of
principles
 Those principles, when
combined with the constraints
and opportunities growing out
of
- the physical /environmental
context,
- the policy environment and
- the political environment,
 allow the identification and
evaluation of broadly defined
development opportunities
 These then lead to the planning,
design and implementation of
specific projects

16. Learning Points from our
Experience
 The “just in time” expectations of consumers means
that airports really ARE now the dominant-shaping
infrastructure asset in cities
 The aerotropolis model can maximise regional
economic growth/competitiveness and community
wellbeing
 The solution requires stakeholder
understanding/appreciation, even if not full
agreement
 Success requires rigorous, evidence-based, wide-
ranging, integrated and creative planning (physical,
economic, social) – but also some bold experiments
 Strong, coordinated project governance is
essential
 Success requires a commitment to integrated
planning decision-making
Urban
Planning
Economic
Planning
Airport
Planning

17. Why couldAerotropolis work better in
Indonesia/Asia than in western nations?
 Most (although not all) new
Asian airports are greenfield
developments, or at least in
less developed areas
 Better able to master plan to adopt the
Aerotropolis model, rather than a
“compromised” Aerotropolis model
 Less or no retrofitting, which is expensive,
less effective and inevitably constrained
by existing airport development
 Western nations are facing relatively low
growth, saturated markets – benefits can
take time to realise
 In Asia a good idea/product can take hold
very quickly – speed to market is always
important - Aerotropolis can facilitate
production and distribution
 Asia’s speed of current &
future economic growth means
that Aerotropolis fits into a
context of growth,
entrepreneurship, opportunity
and relatively less competition
with other industry sectors
 Western nations are facing relatively low
growth, saturated markets – benefits can
take time to realise
 In Asia a good idea/product can take hold
very quickly – speed to market is always
important - Aerotropolis can facilitate
production and distribution
 Asia’s speed of current &
future economic growth means
that Aerotropolis fits into a
context of growth,
entrepreneurship, opportunity
and relatively less competition
with other industry sectors

18. Conclusions
 Airports around the world are evolving to become much
more than transit assets – they are city shapers and
drivers of economic growth
 Progressive city managers are therefore explicitly
integrating airports into their overall urban and
metropolitan plans
 The success of those plans relies on well planned
regional development as well as a well planned
airport
 This is a structured and tested approach which can
be used – critical for implementing projects
 The structured aerotropolis approach could be used for
ports and other infrastructure

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