As more and more aviation-oriented businesses are being drawn to airport cities, a new urban form is emerging…

Welcome to the Aerotropolis

Key nodes in global production and enterprise systems offering…

speed, agility, and connectivity

The planning and development of aerotropolises worldwide
is changing!

The New Model:
Aerotropolis 4.0

This change reflects a pivotal role that governments and the private sector envision them playing in the emerging 4.0 economy where R&D, rapidly advancing IT and automation, and continuing globalisation are interacting to spawn new generation industries and business services that rely extensively on digitisation and rapid long-distance flows of people, products, information, ideas, and capital.

The result is a modification in the mix of businesses and industries being recruited to create modern economic muscle for the aerotropolis along with much greater emphasis on developing the institutional, physical, social, and technological environments that will attract 4.0 firms and their talented workforces.

Featured Articles

A new aerotropolis model is presented that integrates 4.0 economy sectors with smart technologies and sustainable development practices to create and capture value for airports and the regions they serve. Commercial, institutional, and modern industrial components of the 4.0 Aerotropolis are provided in the form of a generic schematic as are its strategic success factors. A selection of airports and airport regions pursuing Aerotropolis 4.0 principles are discussed, as well.

Airport World, Issue 2, 2022

In this article, Mark Arend, editor of Site Selection magazine, interviews John D. Kasarda on the emergence of Lake Nona in Orlando, Florida as a major new component of a greater aerotropolis forming around Orlando International Airport.

Site Selection

Interview of Dr. John Kasarda on how airport city and aerotropolis development is proceeding worldwide as the Covid pandemic turns down. Some new initiatives and new airport city/aerotropolis features are discussed as well.

Featured Video

John Kasarda’s video remarks at the April 10, 2021 China Economic Development Forum on creating airport-high speed rail synergies in Taiyuan, China. Requirements to optimize these synergies for investment attraction are discussed along with case examples of the Hongqiao CBD in Shanghai and the Zhengzhou Airport Economy Zone in Henan Province.

Thai TV program (November 2019) summarizing the development of the Zhengzhou Aerotropolis and the new aerotropolis being developed on Thailand’s Eastern Economic Corridor.

Keynote address at the Third China International Conference on High-End Economic Development, Beijing–Langfang, May 18, 2020.

“Airports will shape business location and urban development in the 21st century as much as highways did in the 20th century, railroads in the 19th and seaports in the 18th”

Dr. Kasarda defined the term “aerotropolis” and works with airports, cities, and countries worldwide to leverage airports and aviation for commercial development and economic growth.