The Global Gateways That Connect America to the World

The world is becoming more global and more urban, and airports are key to its connective fiber. John Kasarda and Greg Lindsay argue that airports underpin a whole new aerotropolis model for economic development that is reshaping economic growth and development in ways that are similar to what the automobile did in the last century, and railroads and waterways did before that. As I wrote here on Atlantic Cities in May, airports indeed have huge influence on urban economic development: they have similar impacts as that of high-skilled college grads (a factor that economists suggest is central to national as well as urban growth), as well as the even larger impact of the high-tech industry.

A recent report from the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program takes a close look at the role of "global gateway" airports and air travel in the United States and around the world. Written by Brooking's Adie Tomer and Robert Puentes and Michigan State University's Zachary Neal (read our recent chat with Neal on city-based social networks), the report tracks global air travel across U.S. metros and to major international destinations using data provided by technology consulting and reservation software company Sabre Airline Solutions on detailed travel records for international itineraries entering and leaving the U.S., as well as data from the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) on passenger counts for flights into and out of the U.S. going back to 1990s.