BACKGROUND
Airports began providing needed transportation of people and goods at a time when the U.S. highway system infrastructure was quite different, and air travel made the most sense for moving between cities. Today’s aviation system has evolved over multiple decades, resulting in a patchwork of regulations and associated expectations that haven’t always been stitched together cohesively. With the benefit of hindsight, it is time to look at the relationships of those expectations. Now airports are expected to be engines of economic development, facilitators of economic justice, and models of environmental stewardship all while meeting customer expectations and supporting the needs of the community within a framework developed 75 years ago.
The aviation industry has reached an inflection point, and now is time to reflect on the past and strategically plan for the future.
A crystal ball cannot reveal the future of aviation, but there are systematic approaches for identifying a vision. Planning for the future requires understanding where the industry has been and how it has arrived at this point. There is a need for an analysis of the history of airport legislation, regulations, and programs as a method for understanding how airports can support the future of aviation.
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this research is a report that identifies the role of airports in supporting the future of aviation. This report will consider the structure of the U.S. airport system, and individual airports and their relationships with and effects upon citizens, the environment, and local communities.
