America's Most Important Airport Cities

Airports are more than just a means of moving people or goods. They are a central component in urban and regional economic development.

Airports serve as key anchors of a new aerotropolis model of economic development, according John Kasarda and Greg Lindsay, that promises to “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." Airports play a key role in "city connectedness," joining key hubs of the global economy, according to Zach Neal of Michigan State University. In fact, the terms "great city" and "port city" were synonymous until the 20th Century, as Peter Hall points out in Cities in Civilization.