Briefly in your own words answer or discuss questions presented in topics below as they relate to airport planning. Some resources are enclosed in the topic areas.
Topics:
European Green Field Airports
Between 1992-2002, no less than three (3) major new green field airports were built in Europe. Discuss all of them and identify any future green field airport developments that have been proposed or which are currently in progress. (For the purposes of this discussion Europe includes all countries featured on this map http://www.sitesatlas.com/Maps/Maps/Europe.htm up to and including Russia, Georgia, Turkey and Cyprus but not any of the countries south of Turkey in the Middle East or in North Africa.)
Niche Airports
There are numerous niche airlines operating all over the world, catering specifically to relatively small segments of the overall traveling public, such as Hooters Air (USA), Rock Air (Gibraltar, RIP), etc. But whether catering to business passengers, holiday seekers, or just people wanting to get from A to B, one-time niche airlines such as Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways are proving to be even more successful than many of the older and larger airlines that they now find themselves competing with. However, taking this analogy a step further, we have also seen the emergence of niche airports partly as a result of this, especially in cities where the primary and sometimes secondary airports no longer have slots to support niche airlines, so “reliever” airports are starting to play a more important role. Discuss this issue by citing examples of cities whose niche airports are starting to handle more and more airlines/flights/passengers, both in the US and internationally.
US vs. EU Airports & Heliports
According to the latest edition of the CIA World Factbook (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html), the US had an estimated 14,807 airports (5,128 with paved runways of which 188 over 3,047 m/10,000 ft.) and 155 heliports in 2003, whereas the European Union (EU) only had 3,130 airports (and only 1,834 with paved runways) and 94 heliports. Yet in July 2004 the EU had an estimated population of 456.3 million living over 4.0 million sq. km compared to only 293.0 million living over 9.6 million sq. km in the US. Discuss the reasons behind these discrepancies – why does the US have so many more airports and heliports?
Multi-Airport Cities
There are a number of cities around the world that have three (3) or more airports serving them. (Typically airports within 50 miles or 1 hour driving time from a central point such as “downtown” are considered as being within the same city.) Identify and discuss as many of them as you can, paying particular attention to those which are vying for additional airports – are they justified? Finally, which three (3) cities occupy the top three (3) slots as having the highest number of commercial airports, both within the US and internationally?
Reclaimed Land Airports
A significant number of new airports, all constructed in Asia, have been built on reclaimed land; artificial man-made islands created from landfills in the sea. Research and discuss these extremely expensive, ambitious, state-of-the-art projects, highlighting some of the problems that they have experienced (and, in some cases, continue to experience) and also the reasons behind the initial choices to build these airports on reclaimed land in the first place.
