Airports, territoriality, and urban governance

Over the past three decades, there has been a growing interest among governments in the privatization of their airports, thus ending state control of major airports, reflecting a worldwide shift in government attitudes toward airports as major drivers of capital accumulation. Evolving from simple airfields with small terminal buildings in the early days of commercial aviation, the contemporary airport is a highly complex megastructure, which, in many cases, derives approximately half of its income from its original functions, such as handling air passenger traffic. From extensive terminal retailing to hotel and convention centers, along with logistics, cargo, and aeronautical engineering functions, the understanding of how the airport platform can be reconfigured is advancing rapidly. Some commentators are now speaking of "airport cities" or the "aerotropolis," assigning these spaces with attributes often associated with established norms of city space (e.g., Kasarda 2004, 2006). These "revenue envelopes" are also managed in ways that differ from state agencies of old.