ABSTRACT
Recent research on large US metropolitan regions has found that employment on or near major airports can be substantial. At the same time, a casual survey suggests that the physical growth and employment generation of many planned airport cities and aerotropolises is less than encouraging. 1 This chapter is directed towards addressing the apparent paradox of significant employment in airport areas, on the one hand, and poorly performing speculative airport city/aerotropolis development projects, on the other. 2 The aim is practical: to aid stakeholders in making decisions about development efforts and investments. As in other types of real estate development, the financial risks can be substantial. The orientation is exploratory. A tentative approach to addressing the paradox is identified and discussed.
