Airports as Connected Activity Centers

This research project determined how airports could function as connected activity centers. The current state of policy is to treat airports as secluded from the rest of the metropolitan area and only engage in reactive planning in response to specific threats or crises. To seek out other models of airport development, a combination of literature reviews and case studies was used to examine airports already functioning as connected activity centers. The literature reviews suggest that there has been substantial research covering on-airport development, while research on integration with surrounding land uses is focused on ‘airport cities’ and ‘Aerotropolis’ concepts. A literature review on airport economic development found a strong relationship between economic growth and air transport, but with uncertain causality, and secondly that most airport cities emerge as part of urban expansion, rather than due to independent effects. Six case studies provide detailed analysis of specific hub, commercial service, and general aviation airports. Scenarios based on the case studies include airports as freight hubs, airports as airport cities, and airports as airport resorts. The central finding is that creating airports as connected activity centers requires more coordination between airports, transportation, and airport-adjacent land-use planning.

  • Record URL:
  • Record URL:
  • Supplemental Notes:
    • Cover date: April 2022.
  • Corporate Authors:

    University of Utah, Salt Lake City

    Metropolitan Research Center
    375 South 1530 East Room 235
    Salt Lake City, UT  United States  84112

    Utah Department of Transportation

    Research Division
    Salt Lake City, UT  United States  84114-8410

    Utah Transit Authority

    200 South 669 West
    Salt Lake City, UT  United States  84101

    Salt Lake County

    Salt Lake City, UT  United States 

    Wasatch Front Regional Council

    295 North Jimmy Doolittle Road
    Salt Lake City, UT  United States  84116

    Mountainland Association of Governments

    586 E 800 N
    Orem, Utah  United States  84097

    Department of Transportation

    1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
    Washington, DC  United States  20590
  • Authors:
    • Miller, Matthew McKee
    • Peng, Justin
    • Metro, Jolyn
    • Eskic, Dejan
  • Publication Date: 2022-5-25

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Media Type: Digital/other
  • Edition: Final Report
  • Features: Appendices; Figures; Maps; Photos; References; Tables;
  • Pagination: 98p

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01847992
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Report/Paper Numbers: UT-22.08
  • Contract Numbers: 19-8200
  • Files: NTL, TRIS, ATRI, USDOT, STATEDOT
  • Created Date: Jun 6 2022 4:54PM