Airports have evolved as drivers of business location and urban

development in the 21st century bringing in the concept of an

aerotropolis. An aerotropolis is a metropolitan subregion where the
layout, infrastructure, and economy are centered on an airport. The
engine of the aerotropolis is the airport and its air routes which offer
firms speedy connectivity to their distant suppliers, customers, and
enterprise partners worldwide. Some aerotropolis businesses are more
dependent on distant suppliers or customers halfway around the world
than those located nearby. As economies become increasingly
globalized and reliant on air commerce for trade in goods and services,
the speed and agility aviation provides to long-distance movement of
people and goods generate competitive advantages for firms and places.
In the aerotropolis model, time and cost of connectivity replace space
and distance as the primary metrics shaping development, with
"economies of speed" becoming as salient for competitiveness
as economies of scale and economies of scope. In this model, it is not
how far, but how fast distant firms and places can connect.

The aerotropolis encompasses aviation-dependent businesses and the

commercial facilities that support them and the multitude of air travelers
who pass through the airport. Airport-linked businesses include, among
others, time-sensitive manufacturing, logistics, and e-
commerce fulfillment; high-value perishables and
biomeds; retail, sports, and entertainment complexes; hotels; conference,
trade, and exhibition centers; and offices for businesspeople who travel
frequently by air or engage in global commerce. Clusters of business
parks, logistics parks, industrial parks, distribution centers, information
technology complexes, land wholesale merchandise marts locate around
the airport and along the transportation corridors radiating from them.
An increasing numbers of aviation-oriented firms and commercial
service providers cluster around airports. The aerotropolis is becoming
a major urban destination where air travelers and locals alike work,
shop, meet, exchange knowledge, conduct business, eat, sleep, and are
entertained often without going more than 15 minutes from the airport.
Principles of urban planning and sustainability are essential to the
creation of a successful aerotropolis and its sustainability. One major
criticism is the question of whether oil will stay relatively inexpensive
and widely available in the future or whether a downturn in oil
production will adversely affect aerotropolises. Others have criticized
the aerotropolis model for overstating the number and types of goods
that travel by air. While many types of high-value goods,
like electronics, tend to travel by air, larger, bulkier items like cars and
grain do not. Other criticisms of the aerotropolis include loss of
farmland and forests, excluding affected people and communities, and
locking in high-carbon infrastructure for decades to come.