4/17/2016

AIRPORT CITIES

GLOBAL TRADING

Steve WatsonCHORD CREATIVE TEAM

TO BECOME AN AIRPORT CITY-GLOBAL TRADING HUB THE

OPPORTUNITIES

THE ECONOMY OF SPEED TRENDS IN TRADE LOGISTICS

THE VALUE AND INTEGRATION OF COMMODITY TRADING

AIRPORT FREE ZONES

THE OPPORTUNITIES

AIRPORT CITIES

1. International gateway airports have moved beyond 20th-century mass transit hubs to become 21st-century strategic business infrastructure. In the process, they are attracting nearly all commercial activities found in urban centers. This has transformed many from what were once “city airports” into urban economic realms in their own right – “airport cities.” Becoming global business anchors and investment magnets, some gateway airport areas now rival the cities they serve for regional economic dominance.

2. The times have changed, and so, particularly, have airports, but you might not have noticed that. Airport capital projects typically have 10- to 15-year planning horizons; therefore, unlike most businesses, airports have to plan 20 years ahead. The result is that they have to live with the legacies of decisions taken decades before, often by other management teams.

An airport and the lands around it might appear unchanged from 10 years ago, but it is likely to now be managed by a team of astute businesspeople, rather than red-tape-ridden officials. Airports control large swathes of prime real estate, and they are looking for opportunities. In fact, most of them now have active marketing campaigns to attract non-aeronautical businesses to the lands and properties they control.

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WHY IT IS VITAL

3. Air traffic is growing at between 2 percent and 8 percent per annum in various parts of the world. It is not uncommon for air traffic at an airport to double in a decade. Airports are economic drivers, gateways to regions, they own lots of land, and they are under pressure to generate revenue from sources other than aviation.

Did you know that many modern airports now generate most of their revenues from sources other than aviation (by as much as 2:1), and that some are even working toward a dispensation where their operations would be funded from non-aeronautical sources to the extent that airlines would be accommodated for free? The business community should be aware of a quiet revolution that has been taking place: Airport authorities are no longer stale bureaucracies. They have quietly been morphing into what can best be called entrepreneurial landlords. You should talk to them.

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WHY ITS VITAL TO ECOSYSTEM OF GLOBAL TRADING

4. Historically, the world’s major airports were developed by national or regional government agencies (the same used to be true for the major air carriers). But in most parts of the world, ownership and management models have been changing radically, spurred on by increasing deregulation and new open-skies agreements.

In many countries (including Canada, Mexico, Europe, and Australia), airports have been privatized to varying degrees, ranging from not-for-profit companies in Canada to for-profit companies in the UK. Aggressively entrepreneurial governments in the Middle East are building many new airports. And while most U.S. airports are still state- or city-owned, airport authorities are trying to wean themselves from dependence on airline-backed funding arrangements, thereby freeing them up to engage in business ventures other than just those related to processing passengers and cargo.

The objective is generally the same: generate enough revenue from non-aeronautical business ventures to fund the continued growth and maintenance of the airport, while keeping landing and terminal fees as low as possible, to make the airport an attractive port for airlines and passengers alike. And instead of career professionals, airports are increasingly employing people from other industries and are turning themselves into real estate developers, landlords, and astute local authorities.

“AIRPORTS ARE ECONOMIC DRIVERS, GATEWAYS TO REGIONS, THEY OWN LOTS OF LAND, AND THEY ARE UNDER PRESSURE TO GENERATE REVENUE FROM SOURCES OTHER THAN AVIATION.”

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5. Airports have woken up to the fact that they are located at the nexus of regional transportation networks and have seen cities grow up around them in a way that makes them not only centrally placed within metropolitan areas, but also (by definition) central to the world. They are gateways to regions and portals to the world.

6. They have also started to understand the value generated by the vast numbers of people, vehicles, and goods that pass through their lands and buildings, and the revenue potential of developing this real estate for its highest and best use. Airports are major employers and they have a keen understanding of their roles as drivers and facilitators of regional economies. Airports have realized that, by maximizing their non-aeronautical revenues, they can generate income streams with which to turn their airports into world-class facilities. Having a world-class facility with low landing fees will, in turn, attract more flights and passengers to the airport, thus creating a virtuous revenue cycle.

7.A change has also taken place in the way airports plan. Instead of single-state “master” plans, airports are turning to dynamic strategic planning, in which a range of future states are studied and appropriate provisions put in place to be able to deal with them all. Instead of the historic clash between an airport’s plans and the surrounding city’s plans, the two worlds can now be brought together, and cities’ plans can be centered around the airport as a central driving force. This creates unique opportunities for those businesses that realize the benefits of locating in or near and airport.

AIRPORTS HAVE STARTED TO UNDERSTAND THE VALUE GENERATED BY THE VAST NUMBERS OF PEOPLE, VEHICLES, AND GOODS THAT PASS THROUGH THEIR LANDS AND BUILDINGS, AND THE REVENUE POTENTIAL OF DEVELOPING THIS REAL ESTATE FOR ITS HIGHEST AND BEST USE.

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("Open For Business: Airports As Real Estate Developer And Strategic Partner - Area Development")

WHY LOCARE NEAR OR IN AN AIRPORT?Ask yourself these questions about your business or venture:

Do we operate globally?

Is it important for us to be connected optimally to the metropolitan region?

Are we dependent on or responsible for just-in-time deliveries of goods or components?

Can we benefit from a large concentration of people and vehicles near us?

Are we dependent on or responsible for “e-tail” (Internet shopping)?

Do we have a lot of staff flying to and from our offices?

Are we in a leading edge or high-tech industry?

Are we involved in or dependent on imports or exports?

Are we involved in or dependent on logistics?

If you are answering “yes” to some of these questions, this is what airports have to offer you:

An active interest in developing their lands in ways compatible with aviation

An economic engine integrated in regional strategic plans

Connections to international markets

A location within the geographical center of the greater metropolitan region

Highway access from all directions

Growing public transit connections, especially to downtown cores

Concentrations of businesses with similar interests

Highway frontage

The change in ownership and outlook of many airports has created opportunities that were not previously appreciated:

Airports are typically located on state-owned lands and therefore not under the jurisdiction of local authorities. They plan their own lands and can, therefore, be approached with new ideas. You will find responsive and business-minded development partners in them.

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Due to their regional significance and the stringent environmental constraints under which airports operate, airports are increasingly forced to reach out to all their surrounding communities, and they are taking the lead in integrating their planning with that of the surrounding regions. They are well-connected and highly influential players in their regions.

Airports are desperately countering the negative effects of the security growth cycle and are once again turning their facilities into local destinations in an effort to regain the “magic of flying.”

Airports often have natural features like streams, beaches, and other conservation areas on their vast lands. These offer opportunities for local residents and visitors alike.

Airports are often surrounded by industrial enterprises, and opportunities for an industrial ecology with the airport as catalyst are still largely unrealized but certainly possible.

WHAT ARE AIRPORTS DOING?Depending on local circumstances (and apart from the normal required airport facilities like parking, etc.), airports have seen the following types of developments, among others, either on their lands or directly adjacent to their lands (many of these are in high demand and, therefore, currently at a premium):

Hotel developments (an airport can be surrounded by 10 or 20 hotels)

Conference/convention centers

High-end outlet malls

Destination shopping centers

Corporate head offices

Mixed-use developments (shop, work, play, stay)

Post-secondary education facilities, specifically aerospace-related

Office buildings

High-tech business parks

Industrial developments (manufacturing, warehousing, etc.)

Cargo facilities

Casinos

Entertainment destinations

Recreational facilities

Botanical gardens

Butterfly gardens

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Residential developments

Libraries

WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES?There are several examples of legacy airports that grew in tandem with their host cities, and

eventually were throttled by those cities, to the extent that they had to close down.

Examples that come to mind are Hong Kong (Kai Tak), Denver (Stapleton), and Edmonton

(City-Centre Airport). While these airports had a rich history bound to the growth of their

cities, their own growth eventually made them incompatible with the city that had come of

age around them. They had to be “relocated” far outside the downtown cores of these cities

and endowed with vast tracts of land to provide for their continued growth. Their

dependent businesses had to relocate also.

Other airports were originally planned with more foresight. But as times have changed,

airports have come to understand the limitations their operations will place on surrounding

lands, as well as the opportunities those lands offer to them. There is a natural tension

between the limitations an airport imposes on the lands surrounding it and the

opportunities it creates for those lands. These tensions are caused by things like noise,

environmental issues, height restrictions, and traffic congestion. The opportunities that an

airport creates are challenged by the limitations it imposes, but airports have now learned

to deal with this effectively, and also now have a motive to do so. In short, if the limitations

of being near an airport are clearly understood, the huge potential of compatible

development becomes apparent.

‘Airports are often surrounded by industrial enterprises, and opportunities for an industrial

ecology with the airport as catalyst are still largely unrealized but certainly possible.’

It is important to carefully consider the particular airport you are interested in. Not all

airports were created equal and they can be dramatically influenced by changes in the

airline industry and general economy. A good example is Shannon airport in Ireland. This

airport was strategically located as a stop on the transatlantic flight corridors from Europe.

It realized its strategic place and built on that by offering the world’s first duty-free stores,

as well as the first U.S. pre-clearance facility in Europe. By being entrepreneurial, it

facilitated the growth of a whole new high-tech industry around it. Over time, aircraft

became capable of flying longer and longer distances (eliminating the need for intermediate

stops), and the world economy crashed. The airport, which had enjoyed traffic growth of 64

percent over the previous decade, saw its traffic halved to pre-1997 levels, as the high-tech

industries that drove its growth scaled back, and a major carrier retreated.

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If you plan to throw your lot in with an airport, be sure to first get a good understanding of

its strategic plans, so that you can appreciate the risks the airport is having to plan for also.

Airports typically publish their master plans and strategic plans on their websites, and it is

probably a good idea to consultant an aviation planning consultant to get an unbiased view

of the long-term risks faced by a particular airport.

OPPORTUNITY VS. RISKAirports are opening up to the communities surrounding them. They are staffed by

business-minded people from a wide range of industries and are hungry for opportunities.

They own vast tracts of land that they have to control to ensure their continued growth, and

they have a very exact understanding of what can or cannot be done with those lands.

Airports are unfettered by local planning restrictions, and are looking for opportunities to

develop their lands. They are well respected and have great influence in their respective

regions. Internally, they are turning their facilities into destinations, introducing a

staggering array of creative facilities in various parts of the world. They are in a high-

growth industry.

Airports are open for business, and you should talk to them, but be sure to get a clear

understanding of the risks they must plan for and how they are doing so before connecting

your fate to theirs.

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("Open For Business: Airports As Real Estate Developer And Strategic Partner - Area Development")

SUMMARY The aerotropolis is a new urban form that relies on an airport and its integrated surface transportation infrastructure to speedily connect high-value, time-sensitive firms to their distant suppliers, customers, and enterprise partners. It consists of a multimodal airport-based commercial core (Airport City) and outlying corridors and clusters of aviation-linked businesses and associated mixed-use commercial/residential developments that feed off of each other and their accessibility to the airport. The competitive advantages of the aerotropolis along with its key components, planning principles, critiques, and counterpoints are discussed.

Keywords Aerotropolis, airport city, competitiveness, globalization, sprawl, urban planning

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THE ECONOMY OF SPEED TRENDS IN TRADE LOGISTICS

This eye-opening look at the new phenomenon called the aerotropolis gives us a glimpse at the way we will live in the near future—and the way we will do business, too.

INTRODUCTION 8. Not so long ago, airports were built near cities, and roads connected

the one to the other. This pattern—the city in the center, the airport on the periphery— shaped life in the twentieth century, from the central city to exurban sprawl. Today, the ubiquity of jet travel,

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round-the-clock workdays, overnight shipping, and global business networks has turned the pattern inside out. Soon the airport will be at the center and the city will be built around it, the better to keep workers, suppliers, executives, and goods in touch with the global market.

9. As more and more aviation-oriented businesses are being drawn to airport cities and along transportation corridors radiating from them, a new urban form is emerging—the Aerotropolis—stretching up to 20 miles (30 kilometers) outward from some airports. Analogous in shape to the traditional metropolis made up of a central city and its rings of commuter-heavy suburbs, the Aerotropolis consists of an airport city and outlying corridors and clusters of aviation-linked businesses and associated residential development. A number of these clusters such as Amsterdam Zuidas, Las Colinas, Texas, and South Korea's Songdo International Business District have become globally significant airport edge-cities representing planned postmodern urban mega-development in the age of the Aerotropolis. This is the aerotropolis: a combination of giant airport, planned city, shipping facility, and business hub.

10. Already the aerotropolis approach to urban living is reshaping life in Beijing and Amsterdam, in China and Rwanda, in Dallas and the Washington, D.C., suburbs. The aerotropolis is the frontier of the next phase of globalization, whether we like it or not. John D. Kasarda defined the term "aerotropolis," and he is now sought after worldwide as an adviser. Working with Kasarda’s ideas and research, the gifted journalist Greg Lindsay gives us a vivid, at times disquieting look at these new cities in the making, the challenges they present to our environment and our usual ways of life, and the opportunities they offer to those who can adapt to them creatively. Aerotropolis is news from the near future—news we urgently need if we are to understand the changing world and our place in it.

“LOOK FOR YESTERDAY'S BUSIEST TRAIN TERMINALS AND YOU WILL FIND TODAY'S GREAT URBAN CENTERS. LOOK FOR TODAY'S BUSIEST AIRPORTS AND YOU WILL FIND THE GREAT URBAN CENTERS OF TOMORROW.”

WHY IT IS VITAL11

The airport and its surrounding aerotropolis serve as the concrete interfaces where the global meets the local in international people and product flows. Their dual roles as airline routers and global local interfaces are making hub airports and their environs business magnets and urban economic catalysts as they attract, sustain, and grow aviation-dependent firms.

Firms in the high-tech and advanced manufacturing sectors, for example, are often more dependent on suppliers and customers halfway around the world than those in their own metropolitan region. By providing these firms with proximity to speedy long-distance connectivity, the aerotropolis helps them raise product quality while cutting costs (via timely access to the widest variety of inputs at the lowest price) and expand market reach, thereby improving their competitiveness and performance in the international division of labor.

Global e-commerce, spurred by the fusion of the net age with the jet age, particularly benefits from aerotropolis location. Good airport access offers e-commerce firms “economies of speed” which have become as important as economies of scale or economies of scope for many in this and other business sectors where time is not just cost, it is currency .

The aerotropolis also contains the full set of logistics and commercial facilities that support aviation-dependent businesses, cargo, and millions of air travelers who pass through the airport annually. Included here, among others, are freight-forwarding and third-party logistics (3PL) providers; distribution facilities for pharmaceuticals, perishables, and other time-sensitive products; hotels, medical, convention and exhibition complexes; and office buildings along with shopping, dining, and leisure venues.

In addition, the aerotropolis attracts and sustains a range of advanced business service firms whose executives and professionals frequently travel to distant sites or who bring in their clients by air for short-term meetings. These firms, referred to as producer service firms, include such sectors as auditing, architecture and engineering, consulting, corporate law, international finance, and marketing.

WHY ITS VITAL TO ECOSYSTEM OF GLOBAL TRADING

Corporate headquarter functions are likewise gravitating to airport areas, either in their own office complexes or by using airport area hotels as virtual corporate headquarters where widely dispersed executives fly in for sales meetings, client contacts, board meetings, and high-level decision making. This optimizes dispersed executives’ long-distance connectivity while minimizing their local ground transport times and costs.

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As increasing numbers of aviation-oriented businesses and their associated residential developments cluster in the vicinity of airports, they are creating new urban growth poles. Some of the largest aerotropolis clusters – such as Amsterdam Zuidas, 7 minutes from Schiphol Airport; Las Colinas, Texas, just east of DFW; Songdo International Business District near South Korea’s Incheon International Airport; and the Zhengzhou (China) Airport Economic Zone – have become globally significant.

Amsterdam Zuidas, for instance, houses the headquarters of international banking giants ABN AMRO and ING. Las Colinas hosts the world headquarters of nine of the Fortune 1000 corporations, while Songdo International Business District is the home of the United Nations Green Climate Fund. The Zhengzhou Airport Economic Zone is currently the world’s largest single site for smartphone production. Foxconn (Apple’s original equipment manufacturer) assembled over 100 million iPhones there in 2015, representing nearly 80% of all iPhones sold globally.

A compressed schematic of the Aerotropolis with its airport city core is shown in Figure. No aerotropolis will look exactly like this rendering, but many will eventually take on similar features led by newer “greenfield” airports on metropolitan peripheries, much less constrained by prior decades of Page 4 of 8 surrounding development. But even around major airports where old industrial development still predominates, transition to more modern aerotropolis economic functions is slowly occurring.

Compressed Aerotropolis Schematic with Airport City Core

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The aerotropolis is thus much more a dynamic, forward-looking concept than a static, crosssectional model where present form often primarily reflects historic nearby development well before aviation and airports took on their current business attraction and support functions. Globalization, along with the need for speed, will continue to attract modern aviation-oriented business investment to airport areas. This will challenge cities and metropolitan regions to effectively plan their aerotropolises in order to bring about the greatest positive returns to the airport, its users, businesses, surrounding communities, and larger region the airport serves. Optimal outcomes are not likely to occur under most current airport-area planning approaches which are fragmented into various planning domains, planning areas, and by conflicting stakeholder interests. Getting the aerotropolis right is a formidable, complex task, requiring aligning a broad range of stakeholders and integrating business site planning, airport planning, and urban and regional planning so that they are reconciled and synergistic. More specifically, aerotropolis integrated planning requires reconciling and synergizing the business site and profitability objectives of individual firms making capital investments; airport and surface transportation planning objectives of ensuring maximal access to the airport and business sites at minimal time and cost; and the urban planning objectives of economic efficiency, livability, and environmental sustainability (Kasarda and Appold 2014). Regarding transportation planning, Page 5 of 8 aerotropolis planning also includes designing systems for efficient, secure cargo logistics and for efficient, safe personal mobility

SUMMARY 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,

Economies of Speed The growing prominence of Dubai and Singapore as international business centers demonstrates that in the aviation-networked economy of the 21st century, it is no longer the big eating the small but the fast eating the slow. Where economies of speed are as important as economies of scale, air connectivity directly translates into both firm and urban competitiveness as gateway airports and their surrounding areas attract businesses seeking to leverage rapid long-distance connectivity.

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THE VALUE AND INTEGRATION OF COMMODITY TRADING

INTRODUCTION

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The business of commodity trading has grown dramatically over recent decades. This paper outlines the underlying reasons for this growth, the vital role commodity trading plays in the global economy and the benefits this brings to participants and the wider society. It details the nature of commodity trading activities and explains how they are typically organized to achieve greatest effectiveness. Along with the rise in Asia’s share of commodity production and consumption, the paper provides further insight on the role and benefits of commodity trading hubs within the region and Singapore’s prime position to support the needs of growing economies across Asia.

WHY IT IS VITAL1. COMMODITY TRADING PLAYS A VITAL ROLE IN THE

GLOBAL ECONOMY:Each year around US$10 trillion of commodities are produced and consumed. However, commodities are rarely produced and consumed in the same place or at the same time - a complex value chain including refining, processing, storage and shipping is usually required to get them to the right place.

Linking these value chain elements together is commodity trading. Commodity trading enables the transition of commodities from the mine or field gate to the factory door and end consumer. Commodity trading ensures the right product turns up in the right place at the right time and at the lowest cost. Commodity trading helps make markets more efficient and reduce business costs.

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Source: UN COMTRADE, IMF Price data, USGS, Malaysian Rubber Board, MIT Economic Atlas, International Cocoa Organization, EIA, BP Statistical Review, Oliver Wyman analysis

2. DIFFERENT WAYS FOR INDUSTRIAL COMPANIES TO PARTICIPATE IN COMMODITY TRADING

Industrial companies that produce or consume commodities can participate in commodity trading in different ways. At its very simplest, commodity trading is selling when the commodity is ready for sale or buying when the commodity is required for consumption. However, many industrial companies are more sophisticated than this and look to both plan ahead and improve margins through commodity trading.

Companies can choose from a range of commodity trading models. The choice of model is driven by a range of factors including the companies’ broader business model (including size and complexity of their product flows relative to their overall industrial activity) and their risk appetite (e.g. some companies have minimal risk appetite and use commodity trading to hedge out as many risks as they can whilst others have high risk appetite and use commodity trading to enhance expected returns). It is important to note that commodity trading is not

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only about margin improvement, but also risk management.

Figure 2 shows the most common trading models, arranged by level of sophistication.

3. WHY COMPONIS ORGANISE TRAADING ACTVITIES IN CENTERALISED UNITS

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COMMODITY TRADING IS DISTINCT FROM THE INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY OF COMMODITIES FIRMS. IT IS COMPLEX AND HAS A DIFFERENT ECONOMIC MODEL AND DIFFERENT RISKS THAT NEED MANAGING, THEREFORE REQUIRES DIFFERENT TYPES OF SKILLS. THESE SKILLS CAN BE GROUPED INTO FOUR ACTIVITIES AS SHOWN IN FIGURE 3. THESE ACTIVITIES ARE INTERLINKED AND NEED TO BE LOCATED TOGETHER TO ENSURE THE SWIFT PROCESSING OF TIME-SENSITIVE COMMODITY TRANSACTIONS.

1. HUB PROVIDE A CRICITICAL ECOSYSTEM FOR THE COMUDITY TRADING There are a number of commodity trading hubs around the world, including Chicago, Geneva, Hong Kong, Houston, London, New York and Singapore. They offer

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critical access to a participant-network of companies working in the commodity sphere which allows business relationships to be built and transactions to be originated, and to the sophisticated financial and legal infrastructure required for trading. In addition, they act as a magnet for people with the specialist skills in commodity trading, and particularly the right education and global language skills that companies need.

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2. THE ROLE OF COMUDITY TRAINING HUBS IN ASIA

Asia’s share of global commodity production and consumption is rising and more commodities are being traded during the Asian time zone. Figure 5 below highlights the commodity asset classes that are now predominantly produced, consumed and traded in Asia (e.g. over two thirds of major commodities like coal and steel are now produced, consumed and traded in Asia). Even other commodities that are predominantly produced outside Asia, like crude oil and liquid natural gas (LNG), are seeing an increasing share of trading in Asia.

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Commodity trading hubs in Asia have an important role to play in developing the market liquidity of these ‘Asian’ commodities. Figure 6 highlights where the different commodity asset classes within the trading liquidity spectrum (that is, the ease of buying or selling and the size of the relative price spread in the market between where people are willing to buy or sell).

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3. THE SINGAPUR PROPOSITIONSingapore plays an important role as a commodity trading hub for Asia. By bringing more companies into one place and facilitating trading, Singapore is helping to improve liquidity in the Asian commodity markets. That adds value for everyone as commodity costs are reduced, supply security is increased and better risk hedging options become available

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SUMMARY THIS CASE FOCUS ON COMMODITY TRADING HUBS, WRITTEN WITH SUPPORT FROM OLIVER WYMAN, DETAILS THE BUSINESS OF AND VITAL ROLE OF COMMODITY TRADING. IT ALSO DETAILS THE NEED FOR COMMODITY TRADING HUBS AND HOW THEY BENEFIT THE GLOBAL COMMODITY BUSINESS

FOR THAT REASON MANY COMPANIES PUT THEIR COMMODITY TRADING ACTIVITIES IN A STANDALONE UNIT, FORMING A CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE THAT POOLS SKILLS ACROSS TRADING, MARKETING, LOGISTICS AND RISK MANAGEMENT. CENTRES OF EXCELLENCE ARE OFTEN LOCATED IN COMMODITY TRADING HUBS.

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AIRPORT FREE ZONES

HUBS OF COMMERCE

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CONCLUDING COMMENT

We have entered a new transit-oriented development era where cities are being built around airports instead of the reverse. In the process, the urban center is being relocated in the form of globally significant airport cities and aerotropolises. Propitious opportunities await metropolitan regions (including their traditional central cities) that can marshal the vision, planning skills, and coordinated actions tocapitalize on them.

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CONCLUSIONS The bottom line is that reasoned critiques of aerotropolis development and their

counterpoints can contribute to healthy debate in urban and regional studies. Central to debate and further study is addressing the extent to which 21st -century globalization is manifested and accelerated by aviation linked urban forms and functions, along with the challenges and opportunities such aerotropolis development presents to people, firms, communities, regions, and nations.

This paper commenced with the observation that the best-connected locations have always attracted and grown business.

In our globally networked and speed-driven economy.

This means that the best connected airports (measured by the number of markets served times the frequency of service to those markets weighted by the size of those markets) will bring disproportionate competitive advantages to the firms and metropolitan regions and nations they serve.

Upgrading airports and expanding air routes

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These are vital to cities and regions seeking to diversify their economies. Boost exports, Attract investment, Draw high-spending tourists.

For potential investors and tourists arriving by air, airports are a metropolitan region’s business card and final handshake presenting the region’s first and last impressions.

Future development of the aerotropolis will be driven by further global integration and the need for speedy connectivity.

Both will be enabled and catalyzed by the continuing expansion of aviation routes operating as a Physical Internet moving people and products quickly worldwide, analogous to the way the digital Internet moves data and information.

With airports serving as key nodes (or routers) of this PhysicalInternet, aviation, globalization, and urban development converge, creating the 21st century aerotropolis.

A GLOBAL HUB OF OPPORTUNITY, POSITIONED AT A KEY CROSSROADS OF OCEAN-BOUND AND RIVER SHIPPING LANES, INTERSTATE HIGHWAYS AND NATIONAL RAIL LINES

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REFERENCES

"Open For Business: Airports As Real Estate Developer And Strategic Partner - Area Development". Evernote. N.p., 2016. Web. 17 Apr. 2016.

Walker, Jack. "Aerotropolis: The Way We'll Live Next". Aerotropolis.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 17 Apr. 2016.

"The Global Value Chain In The 21St Century". Evernote. N.p., 2016. Web. 17 Apr. 2016. N.p., 2016. Web. 17 Apr. 2016. AEROTROPOLIS,John D. Kasarda, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,

John_Kasarda@unc.edu AEROTROPOLIS:AIRPORTS AS THE NEW CITY CENTER, Dr. John Kasarda, MBA,

PhD, President and CEO of Aerotropolis Business Concepts LLC Hubs of Commerce, by Dr. John D. Kasarda

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