2019 CTS Transportation Research Conference - Luncheon Session : Aerotropolis: Shaping Transportation and Regional Development into the Future

Keynote Speaker:

John Kasarda, Director, Center for Air Commerce, University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School, and CEO, Aerotropolis Business Concepts LLC

Major airports have become key nodes in global production and enterprise systems offering them speed, agility, and connectivity. They are also powerful engines of local and greater metropolitan region development, attracting aviation-linked businesses to their environs and beyond. The “aerotropolis” is an urban form where cities are built around airports speedily connecting time-sensitive suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and businesspeople to distant customers, clients, and marketplaces.

This presentation featured the aerotropolis model, its economic rationale, and how it can bring competitive advantages to firms and municipalities in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul region and to the entire state. Illustrations of successful aerotropolis development elsewhere in the world were also detailed. Concluding the presentation was a unique video on what a future Minneapolis-Saint Paul aerotropolis might look like in terms of transportation infrastructure and coordinated commercial development.

About the Speaker

John Kasarda

John Kasarda is an academic and airport business consultant focused on aviation-driven economic development. He is director for the Center for Air Commerce at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, the CEO of Aerotropolis Business Concepts LLC, an airport economy consulting firm, and the president of the Aerotropolis Institute in China.